In December 2015, the UN General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day and tasked the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to coordinate the commemoration tsunamis disasters worlwide. World Tsunami Awareness Day was established at the suggestion of Japan to call on countries, international bodies and civil society to raise tsunami awareness and share innovative approaches to risk reduction.
IOC-UNESCO is working to reduce the vulnerability of coastal areas to tsunamis in the four ocean basins. The institution, together with its Member States, contribute to World Tsunami Awareness Day through information meetings, round tables, scientific workshops, local exercises, launching of publications, videos and press meetings.
Key figures
- By 2030, an estimated 50% percent of the world population will be under threat of water flooding.
- In the past 100 years, 58 tsunamis have killed more than 260 000 people.
- The hardest one is Indian Ocean’s Tsunami in 2004 which caused an estimate 227 000 fatalities in 14 countries.
Eyewitness of earthquakes and tsunamis
Over the last years, IOC-UNESCO has released a series of movies to to increase the awareness about the Tsunami among over 700 million people live in low-lying coastal areas and Small Islands.
Discover the videos and stories of tsunami’ survivors.