Nearly two dozen countries, including Pakistan, next Wednesday will take part in a full-scale test of the Indian Ocean’s tsunami alert system, using the 2004 Sumatra quake as the basis for the exercise, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said on Thursday. Exercise IOWAVE 11 will re-enact the seismic events of December 26, 2004, simulating a 9.2-magnitude quake that occurs northwest of Sumatra, sending waves across the Indian Ocean that strike the coast of South Africa 12 hours later. It will be a trial run for newly-launched Regional Tsunami Service Providers (RTSPs), located in Australia, India and Indonesia, which will issue simulated “alerts.” They are part of a region-wide tsunami warning and mitigation service, set up by 28 countries after the 2004 disaster.
