Seychelles

For the second year, a High School students Summit was organised in Japan to mark World Tsunami Awareness Day. Young people from 26 countries participated.

A special event was held yesterday at the Africa Regional Platform to mark the introduction of World Tsunami Awareness Day to the international calendar.

Singapore and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) have renewed their partnership to strengthen the disaster risk management capacity of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other developing countries that are vulnerable to natural disasters and are on the front line of climate change.

A multinational tsunami drill in the Indian Ocean has taught Seychelles key lessons about how to save lives in the event that a potentially deadly wave strikes in the future, according to senior officials in the island nation.

Tourism is an important element of the two-day tsunami drill taking place today and tomorrow in 24 countries across the Indian Ocean. Today we report on how the Seychelles is preparing for the IOWave16 exercise.

There are parliamentary elections in the Seychelles this week but the national media are still making it a priority to participate in a major Indian Ocean tsunami drill which gets underway tomorrow.

World Tsunami Awareness Day will be marked for the first time this year, on November 5. This week 24 countries with exposed coastlines in the Indian Ocean are taking part in one of the largest tsunami drills ever staged.

Indian Ocean states are taking important steps to strengthen their individual and collective disaster risk management. Five islands – the Union of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Zanzibar – are working to establish and manage disaster loss databases. The 2005-15 Hyogo Framework for Action highlights the importance of accounting for past losses that can provide a basis for better risk assessments, more appropriate disaster planning and effective measures to reduce vulnerability and exposure. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), in a joint effort with the Indian Ocean Commission’s (IOC) ISLANDS Project, is supporting the strengthening of local capacities and expertise so that the countries are able to produce their own risk assessments and loss databases.