November 5, 2016 is the first World Tsunami Awareness Day. The day is officialy being marked at the Asian Ministerial Conferance for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016 being held from 3rd to 5th November, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi by the Goverment of India along with United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction.
5th November has a great significance for this event when we trace this back to 1854. A villager in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, was worried about an impending tsunami after a high-intensity earthquake on November 5, 1854. He set rice sheaves on fire on the top of a hill. Fellow villagers, who went atop to put off the fire got saved as a tsunami destroyed their village down below. This was the first time when someone gave a tsunami early warning.
To remember that day of “Inamura no Hi” (the burning of rice sheaves), a resolution was jointly proposed by 142 countries including Japan in the follow up of a third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thus 5th November is being celebrated as World Tsunami Awareness Day by the UN. The observance of this day will help in spreading awareness among people across the world about the dangers of tsunami and will stress on the importance of early warning systems in order to mitigate damage from the often devastating natural hazard. It also aims at gathering and disseminating traditional knowledge about tsunami.
Awareness raising activities will be organized during the Conference through thematic events such as exhibitions, and distribution of awareness materials. Along with 23 other countries India also participated in a tsunami mock drill on September 7-8, 2016. Besides increasing awareness, the drill measured the capability of participating nations to handle tsunami and other similar emergency situations.
