A detection system to warn of tsunamis like the one that devastated the coasts of south Asia last December will be operational by July 2006, the United Nations science and culture organisation UNESCO said Thursday.
UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) also announced that Indian ocean states will meet in Perth, Australia on August 3 to coordinate the system's implementation.
"The first step is for these countries to be able to detect major earth tremors capable of setting off tsunamis, to pass this information on straightaway to their neighbours and to issue an alert," said IOC executive secretary Patricio Bernal.
"Then there is the whole issue of public awareness, which is in fact far more important. A detection system is useless if people who are warned of the danger fail to react," he said.
Some 215,000 people died in the tsunamis of December 26, 2004.
