It’s heartening to hear that the country’s proposed tsunami warning system will be in place soon and will be based on state-of-the-art technology. But it is uncomfortable to hear a ‘distinguished scientist’ of the Department of Ocean Development brag that this will be the best in the world. Best for India would be good enough for us. The details of the planned Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting System (DOARS) were reportedly given last Wednesday at the Indian Science Congress in Hyderabad.
The government decided to establish a sophisticated system for detecting deep-sea events, in the aftermath of the December 2004 undersea earthquake and resulting tsunami. So it’s good news that the DOARS will be operational in the next couple of months. But, the ‘distinguished scientist’ must have been clearly out of his depth to claim that the planned system is far ‘superior’ to the International Tsunami Warning System (based on a partnership with Unesco’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission) in the Pacific region. True, many of the warnings issued by the Pacific centre turn out to be false alarms.
But then a false warning is better than no warning at all, especially when a 10-storey-high wall of water could be moving towards you at supersonic speed.
It’s irresponsible to boast about the perceived ‘superiority’ of critical emergency systems like the DOARS. The idea was to expand and adapt the capacity of the Pacific facility to the Indian Ocean region, to be integrated into existing hazard warning systems and national development plans, not put up competition.
{{/usCountry}}It’s irresponsible to boast about the perceived ‘superiority’ of critical emergency systems like the DOARS. The idea was to expand and adapt the capacity of the Pacific facility to the Indian Ocean region, to be integrated into existing hazard warning systems and national development plans, not put up competition.
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