ISLAMABAD: World Tsunami Awareness Day is being observed today (Saturday) with an aim to raise awareness and enhance international cooperation to effectively counter the tsunamis.

This year the theme of the days is “Early Warning and Early Action before Every Tsunami: Building partnerships and leveraging data to ensure no one is left behind”. It is highlighted here that in the past 100 years, Tsunamis have claimed more than 260,000 lives.

The highest number of deaths in that period was in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. It caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand hardest-hit.