ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is among the 24 countries of the Indian Ocean region which will participate in a large-scale simulation exercise aimed at testing the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System.

The exercise, to be carried out on Sept 9 and 10 under the auspices of Unesco, will come 10 years after the strongest tsunami in living memory, that of 2004 which killed over 230,000 people and displaced more than one million people.

According to Unesco, the goal is to measure the capacity and response times of the countries involved to address such rare but potentially destructive events.

Known as “IOWAVE14”, the exercise will comprise two scenarios: the first one simulating an earthquake of 9.1 magnitude south of Java, Indonesia, on Sept 9 and the second one simulating an earthquake of 9 magnitude in the Makran trench south of Iran and Pakistan. Both the scenarios will simulate tsunami waves travelling across the Indian Ocean.

The test is designed to assess the effectiveness of communication flows between the countries involved, their readiness and the efficiency of emergency procedures. Several countries will also undertake evacuation of coastal populations. An evaluation will be conducted after the exercise to identify gaps and weaknesses to improve the system.

Other countries participating in the exercise are Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Yemen.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2014