By Xinhua
Yangon (Myanmar) : Myanmar and India will cooperate on tsunami monitoring and experts of the two countries will meet soon for discussions about the details of early warning projects for tsunamis, the local Yangon Times reported in this week’s issue.
According to the report, Myanmar’s state Meteorology and Hydrology Department (MHD) and India’s Ministry of Geology and Science will cooperate on tsunami monitoring.
In 2005, a year after Dec 26, 2004 tsunami, Myanmar set up a national committee for natural disaster prevention and resettlement in a bid to strengthen its tsunami warning system although the country was not as severely affected by the tsunami as other South and Southeast Asian nations.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has committed itself to helping Myanmar develop an early warning system for tsunamis and other natural disasters by setting up two seismograph stations and two sea-level measurement stations, according to the MHD.
Tsunami data from the already established regional early warning centre in the Indian Ocean will be received by Myanmar’s early warning centre.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is also helping Myanmar establish an early earthquake warning, according to state media.