Message on World Tsunami Awareness Day

世界海嘯意識日致辭

5 November 2018

2018年11月5日

Tsunamis are rare but devastating. I saw this first-hand during my recent visit to Sulawesi, Indonesia, shortly after the earthquake and tsunami of 1 October. More than 2,000 people died and thousands more were harmed or displaced.海嘯雖然罕見，但具有破壞性。在10月1日地震和海嘯發生後不久，我訪問了印度尼西亞蘇拉威西島，親眼目睹了這一情況。有2000多人死亡，數千人受傷或流離失所。

As well as struggling to deal with the losses and trauma, the people of Sulawesi will need to recover from the economic losses caused by this disaster. Reducing economic losses is a key target of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and is vital for eradicating extreme poverty.除了努力應對損失和創傷外，蘇拉威西島的居民還需要從這場災難造成的經濟損失中恢復過來。減少經濟損失是《仙台減少災害風險框架》的一個關鍵目標，對消除極端貧困至關重要。

Over the past two decades, tsunamis have accounted for almost 10 per cent of economic losses from disasters, setting back development gains, especially in countries that border the Indian and Pacific Oceans.在過去二十年中，海嘯佔各種災害所造成經濟損失的近10％，使發展成果出現倒退，特別是在印度洋和太平洋沿岸國家。

World Tsunami Awareness Day is an opportunity to emphasize again the importance of disaster prevention and preparedness, including early warning, public education, science to better understand and predict tsunamis, and development that takes account of risk in seismic zones and exposed coastal areas.世界海嘯意識日是一個契機，可藉此再次強調必須開展防災備災工作，其中包括早期預警、公衆教育、爲更好地瞭解和預測海嘯進行科學研究、以及在發展過程中考慮到地震帶和受影響沿海地區的風險。