PEART

GOVERNMENT IS awaiting documents for a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) with the United States, to begin construction on a tsunami centre in Jamaica.

Local Government Minister, Dean Peart, told The Gleaner yesterday that once the MoU is signed, it will be sent to the Attorney-General who will give approval for construction of the facility which will have nine stations.

Mr. Peart announced plans for the complex last July in Parliament. At the time, he said the Government was in final discussions with their American counterparts regarding the MoU.

State-of-the-art system

Under this agreement, the U.S. will provide the apparatus, training of personnel and testing of sites. Jamaica is to receive a state-of-the-art broadband system which is to be placed beneath the sea. This equipment detects high-intensity earthquakes such as the one that devastated sections of Indonesia and Sri Lanka in late 2004.

Once it senses any powerful movement, the early-warning system sends information of the quake via satellite to other Caribbean stations as well as to headquarters in Washington for analysis.

An appropriate advi-sory would then be sent out. The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 in the Indian Ocean affected at least 12 countries and took over 200,000 lives in addition to causing massive infrastructure damage.