Asia slow to prepare for new disaster<\/p>\n
Barry Nield, Agence France-Presse\/Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Aftershocks still jolt Indonesia six months after the huge quake
\nand tsunamis that took Asia by surprise, but despite an urgent
\nneed to prepare for a new catastrophe, little has been achieved.<\/p>\n
Warning systems, evacuation procedures and a swift emergency
\nresponse to future disaster were promised after December 26, when
\na magnitude-9.3 tremor off Sumatra island left 180,000 people
\ndead around the Indonesian ocean.<\/p>\n
The need to put in place contingency plans for an event
\nscientists say is a near certainty was underlined on March 28
\nwhen an 8.7 quake exploded off Sumatra, killing more than 900
\npeople and spreading region-wide panic.<\/p>\n
\"The 28th of March was a wake up call for all of us about the
\nneed for preparedness,\" said Michele Lipner, head of the UN
\nOffice for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in
\nIndonesia's battered region of Aceh.<\/p>\n
Yet, despite the two major earthquakes that were among the
\nstrongest ever recorded, none of the 11 countries affected by the
\ntsunamis have completed an effective warning system and few are
\nready to cope with subsequent disasters.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, which has been hit by more than 4,000 tremors
\nsince December 26, the government has not even managed to mount a
\nbasic public information campaign on what to do when the next big
\none strikes.<\/p>\n
\"This is something that we are well aware needs to happen,\"
\nsays Lipner, whose office walls in Aceh are covered with charts
\npinpointing the epicenter of every earthquake this year.<\/p>\n
\"A recent aftershock of 5.6 created some panic because there
\nwas a coincidentally high tide. There is a jitteriness in the
\npopulation and a tendency to panic.\"<\/p>\n
The International Organization for Migration has mounted a
\nsuccessful education program on the island of Nias -- worst
\naffected by the March quake -- but other patchwork information
\ncampaigns offer conflicting advice.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, many Aceh residents have taken matters into
\ntheir own hands. In the minutes after the March tremor, many were
\nseen running through the streets with prepacked bundles of
\nclothes and provisions.<\/p>\n
More progress appears to have been made in Thailand which,
\nkeen to safeguard its lucrative tourism industry, staged
\nevacuation drills in beachside resorts in late April, with high
\npitched alarms preluding a mass evacuation to high ground.<\/p>\n
In India, however, there was heavy criticism of television,
\nradio and loud hailer tsunami alerts issued on March 28.
\nActivists said they caused unnecessary panic.<\/p>\n
\"We need to do more and in a coordinated way all along the
\ncoast. Drills must be practiced involving the local villagers so
\nthat there is no delay,\" said Sarbani Das Roy of the Ireland-
\nbased Hope Foundation.<\/p>\n
\"The response needs to be planned in a better way instead of
\ncreating fear and panic.\"<\/p>\n
Key to any disaster preparation is the establishment of
\nregionwide tsunami warning systems. These are expected to take
\nseveral years to develop, but wrangling over the location and
\ntype used has done little to expedite matters.<\/p>\n
India says it will have a tsunami warning system in place in
\nthe Indian Ocean by 2007, giving up to three hours notice to
\nevacuate coastal areas, but needs Southeast Asian help to develop
\nthe 26 million dollar plan.<\/p>\n
Although Indonesia is working with German assistance to
\ninstall its own system and Australia is working on another, the
\ngoal of creating a coordinated network of national warning
\ncapabilities still looks a long way off.<\/p>\n
Officials in charge of rebuilding tsunami areas have also been
\nlooking at ways to mitigate future disasters through creating
\ncoastal buffer zones to prevent people from living near the sea,
\nbut these have been criticized for keeping people from their
\nformer homes and professions.<\/p>\n
In Aceh, a reconstruction blueprint released earlier this year
\noffered ambitious plans reshaping local geography to provide
\nshelter from rising waters, but these have mostly been dismissed.<\/p>\n
\"There were some plans that were unfeasible, such as
\nartificial hills. But in some places, people are already building
\nescape routes,\" said Reiko Niimi, the UN's senior advisor for
\ntsunami recovery.<\/p>\n
In the village of Meunasah Tuha, on the outskirts of the
\nregion's main city Banda Aceh, 250 survivors out of a pre-tsunami
\npopulation of 1,500 have already mapped out a way to retreat from
\nthe waves in case of emergency.<\/p>\n
\"We're building a road to the hills where there is already a
\npathway cut to higher ground,\" said village head Subki Basyah,
\nindicating a pegged out swath of land stretching a kilometer to
\nhigher ground.<\/p>\n
Work also needs to be done in preparing a response to any
\nfurther disaster, so that countries can cope without the need for
\nthe massive level of emergency assistance deployed by the
\ninternational community after December 26.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said despite the
\nfrequent calamities that befell his country, it remained ill-
\nprepared. His department has drafted a disaster management act
\nthat will help put logistics and goods in place.<\/p>\n
Yet some officials acknowledge that if a catastrophe on the
\nsame scale as the tsunamis strike again, there is very little
\nthat can be done.<\/p>\n
\"If the same earthquake and the same tsunami hits this region,
\nthere's no way we can prevent an enormous loss of life. It is too
\nhuge an event for humans to defend themselves,\" said Aceh
\nreconstruction chief Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.<\/p>\n
burs-bjn\/sdm
\nAsia-quake-6months-preparedness
\nAFP<\/p>\n
GetAFP 2.10 -- JUN 24, 2005 08:59:59<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asia-slow-to-prepare-for-new-disaster-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }