Post-tsunami world pledges to invest in disaster preparations

UN to co-ordinate new warning system

More than 150 nations pledged Saturday to build early warning systems and make disaster preparation a budget priority in the wake of the Asian tsunamis, but avoid imposing concrete goals after five days of heated talks...

UN relief chief Jan Egeland said that a "faithful interpretation" of promises made during the five-day conference in Kobe, Japan "would mean the saving of hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of livelihoods."

"The world may not be a safer place next week but it should be in a year from now and it should certainly be at the end of the decade that we are now embarking on," Egeland said....

The delegates reached a consensus on Thursday to put the United Nations in charge of building a tsunami alert system for the Indian Ocean, amid competing offers by donor and regional nations to share their technology.

The alert system for the Indian Ocean was pledged be up and running in 12 to 18 months.

Sort of sounds promising. At least a step in the right direction.