Mr. Hamdard attends symposium on tsunami warning systems organized by the Japanese Government, UNESCO, and the UNU

February 16, 2012: Mr. Basir Hamdard, Second Secretary and Consul at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, attended the symposium “The Great East Japan Tsunami and Tsunami Warning Systems: Policy Perspectives” at the United Nations University in Tokyo. The two-day symposium was organized by the Japanese Government, UNESCO, and the UNU, and supported by a number of academic institutions and media organizations.

As Afghans both in Japan and in Afghanistan were very concerned that their Japanese brothers and sisters had suffered so greatly on March 11th, and continue to face difficulties, Mr. Hamdard’s presence was in order to show the solidarity of the people and Government of Afghanistan, as well as the Embassy staff, with the Japanese people.

Reporting on the devastating effects, it was announced that 15,850 people have now been confirmed dead as a result of the problems from the disasters, and that an additional 3,281 are still considered missing. As part of the efforts to prevent such a large loss of life should a future occurrence happen, the government and media have announced that they will work in cooperation. Building on their positive role of alerting the public in the March 11th disasters, as one example, NHK will now install 460 cameras in potential disaster zones and ready 14 helicopters, allowing them to continue to alert the public, but also to now help to alert government reaction teams, such as evacuation forces.