74 More coastal villages in Odisha are been indentified “Tsunami Ready”

BHUBANESWAR, September 28: Seventy-four more coastal villages in Odisha have been declared “Tsunami Ready” under the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme, taking the total number of recognised tsunami-ready villages in the state to 100, officials said.

The recognition was announced at a meeting of the National Tsunami Ready Board (NTRB) and the Government of Odisha held in Bhubaneswar, following field verification of coastal villages in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts.

The meeting was chaired by Balakrishnan Nair, Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), and Rajesh Prabhakar Patil, Managing Director,   Odisha   State   Disaster   Management   Authority   (OSDMA).

The state government has identified 381 coastal villages and habitations as tsunamiprone and is implementing the Tsunami Ready Programme in a phased manner to strengthen community preparedness, early warning dissemination and response mechanisms.

As part of the recognition process, the NTRB conducted field verification on September 26 and 27, assessing key preparedness indicators, including tsunami awareness, warning dissemination, evacuation preparedness and community response mechanisms. The team also interacted with local communities to assess their understanding of tsunami risks and preparedness measures.

The state government has identified 381 coastal villages and habitations as tsunami-prone and is implementing the Tsunami Ready Programme in a phased manner to strengthen community preparedness, early warning dissemination and response mechanisms.

 

As part of the recognition process, the NTRB conducted field verification on September 26 and 27, assessing key preparedness indicators, including tsunami awareness, warning dissemination, evacuation preparedness and community response mechanisms. The team also interacted with local communities to assess their understanding of tsunami risks and preparedness measures.

With the recognition of these additional 74 villages, Odisha has further strengthened its community-level preparedness against tsunami hazards and made significant progress towards its target of preparing all identified tsunami-prone coastal communities under the programme.