In a message, Secretary-General António Guterres cited the need for strong disaster risk governance against the rare but incredibly devastating sudden onset disasters.
“When tsunamis strike, they are a supreme test of the governance and institutions that have been put in place to manage disaster risk,” he said.
Strengthening disaster risk governance would help build our resilience to “all hazards, natural and man-made,” he stressed.
World Tsunami Awareness Day, marked annually on 5 November, commemorates the actions of a Japanese village leader, who on that day in 1854, recognized the signs of an approaching tsunami and set fire to his rice sheaves – an improvised but remarkably effective early warning system – saving the lives of the many villagers who saw the smoke and ran uphill to help put out the flames.
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