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The Fiji Ministry of Education in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) jointly
supported schools to develop Tsunami Emergency Evacuation plans (EEP) in line with the UNISDR campaign
on “Safer Schools”. With support from partners such as SOPAC a Suva tsunami evacuation map was developed
and the schools were required to test their EEP, using the Evacuation Zones indicated on the map. On Thursday
10th November, 2011 26 schools participated in the Tsunami Evacuation Drill with approximately 12,000
students and school staff.
Schools located along the coasts of the
Suva peninsula include: Suva Grammar,
Veiuto Primary, Draiba Primary, Fiji National
University Catering School, Fiji Government
Centre for Training and Development, Stellar
Marist Primary, Cathedral Secondary, MGM
Primary, MGM Secondary, Champgnet
Primary, Marcellin Primary, Ratu Sukuna
Memorial Secondary, Suva Christian, St
Agnes Primary, Laucala Bay Secondary, DAV
College, SSM Primary, International Primary,
International Secondary, Nadera Rishikul
Primary, Rishikul Primary, Rishikul College,
Nasinu Secondary, John Wesley Primary,
John Wesley Secondary, Vishnu Deo Primary
and Suva Christian School.
The drill was based on the scenario that an earthquake had occurred in the Tonga trench and issued a tsunami
wave with one hour of wave travel time to reach Suva.
Mr Iosefo Volau, Director Asset Monitoring Unit of the Ministry of Education and the exercise controller was
satisfied with the overall performance of the schools, especially those that were able to reach their respective
evacuation areas well before the expected time of arrival of the tsunami wave. He was thankful to partners
present at the evacuation sites such as NDMO, Police, Mineral Resource Department, St John, Fiji Red Cross
Society, National Fire Authority, Ministry of Health, Save the Children, SOPAC and PCIDRR.
Mr Filipe Bole, Minister of Education in addressing students at the Raghwan Park, one of the evacuation
sites, reminded students to cooperate with their teachers and know their evacuation routes to ensure no
one is injured should a tsunami hit the Suva peninsula. Further he encouraged students to take the tsunami
evacuation message home and encourage their parents to identify their evacuation sites and conduct drills as
well.
Suva schools participate in Tsunami
Evacuation Drill
Suva Grammar School students participate in tsunami drill.