Malta warned to prepare for tsunami within 30 years

Malta has been told by UNESCO to prepare for a tsunami within 30 years and that at least one of its coastal towns should have tsunami preparations in place by the end of 2023.

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UNESCO’s risk statement refers to one-metre waves in the whole Mediterranean region. These can move and lift cars off the ground while smaller ones can result in walls of water travelling at 65km/h.

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The risk has “actually materialised and is not just statistics and theory” as evidenced in the “significant” tsunamis that have already occurred in 2017 and 2020 in Greece and Turkey, he stressed.

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Malta’s EU-funded, 30-month, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission project, CoastWAVE, will see it join another six Mediterranean countries whose communities will be recognised as tsunami-ready, culminating in the installation of a permanent tsunami-alerting system.

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While communities in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, where most tsunamis occurred, were often aware of the dangers, these were underestimated in other coastal regions, including the Mediterranean.

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