Vietnam will start building a tsunami warning system next year, with 532 alert stations in 13 coastal cities facing a high tsunami risk.

Illustrative image: Viet Nam will start building a tsunami warning system with 532 alert stations in 13 coastal cities facing a high tsunami risk to raise the alarm in case of an impending tsunami disaster. — Photo www.vietbao.vn

The warning system, which will be installed from central Ha Tinh Province to Ba Ria Vung Tau City, is expected to raise the alarm for any impending tsunami disaster.

The project, which will run until 2019, is expected to cost VND197 billion (US$8.9 million), Nguyen Xuan Hien, director of the National Hydrometeorology Forecasting Centre, told a conference on this project last year.

In May 2011, Viet Nam's first tsunami warning system, with 10 alert stations, was successfully tested in the central city of Da Nang.

After the trial, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai praised the system's success.

He said Viet Nam had more than 3,000km of coastline, so a tsunami warning system was urgently needed. Therefore, the trial construction of the first 10 stations in Da Nang was a necessity.

The system will help residents prepare in advance to evacuate their premises for safer zones as soon as possible.

He said the warning system should inform people to return only 1-2 hours after the first tsunami waves arrive because many aftershocks and further tsunami waves tend to occur in the aftermath of an earthquake or tsunami.

VNS