Joint office urged for tsunami and quake prevention, handling

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Representatives of five countries hit by the tsunami disaster a few months ago recommended on Tuesday that the five countries establish a joint office that would function as an information, data and training center for tsunami prevention and handling.

The recommendation was made on Tuesday at the end of the two- day "Regional Workshop on Post-Tsunami Lessons Learned and Best Practices."

Besides recommending the establishment of a joint office, the workshop participants also recommended the setting up of an early warning system in the five countries.

In addition, the workshop participants called on foreign aid workers to respect local cultures when operating in the areas affected by the tsunami.

Deputy Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Risman Musa, who led the Indonesian delegation, said that the recommendations would be presented to the governments of the five countries for follow-up action.

"We are targeting the implementation of all the recommendations by the end of this year," said Risman.

Around 60 participants from Indonesia, Myanmar, the Maldives, Thailand and Sri Langka attended the workshop, which followed a similar workshop held in Jakarta last month.

The Bangkok head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), Rashid Khalikov, said that the workshop was aimed at identifying best practices for preventing and dealing with the aftermaths of tsunamis and earthquakes.

Based on experiences in several countries, Khalikov noted various weaknesses, including a lack of trained volunteers.

Rizal Nurdin, the governor of North Sumatra, said that the workshop was important as it discussed government preparations for the handling of disasters, foreign aid management, medical treatment and victim evacuation.

The workshop identified lessons so that governments could better prepare themselves to prevent and cope with tsunamis and earthquakes in the future.

Rizal said that the experiences shared during the two days of the workshop would be published in a book that would be distributed worldwide.

The workshop took place against the backdrop of the earthquake and tsunami disaster that affected over 10 countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia, with Aceh province in Indonesia being the worst hit. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the disaster, which has been dubbed the worst natural disaster ever in human history.