Warning systems set up across Asia after tsunami disaster

Warning systems set up across Asia after tsunami disaster

Griffin Shea
Agence France Presse/Ton Sai, Thailand

Two tsunami warning towers now dot the skyline in the idyllic
vacation village of Ton Sai on Thailand's Phi Phi island -- a
welcome sight, according to 35-year-old shopowner Fatima
Thamnakla.

"If it happens again, it will be better than last time," she
tells AFP, pointing out the towers on the tourist beach and near
the village mosque.

But she adds matter-of-factly: "We won't know how well the
warning system works until it happens again."

When giant waves unleashed by a violent under-sea earthquake
crashed onto the shores of 11 Indian Ocean countries last year,
many governments had no way to warn the public of the imminent
danger, leading to the massive death toll of around 217,000.

Forewarned, many of the victims could have fled to the safety
of higher ground when the three-metre-high waves swept inland.
From Indonesia to India, those countries blindsided by the
tsunami have since launched efforts to avert a repeat, setting up
warning systems, improving cross-border coordination and
increasing community awareness.

The national emergency plans being put in place are meant to
supplement international efforts led by the United Nations to set
up a regional early warning system similar to that already used
in the Pacific.

Top scientists and government officials from over 25 nations
have been meeting this week in Hyderabad, India, to discuss
progress on the regional system which it is hoped will be
implemented next year.

Individual countries, meanwhile, have been busy making their
own plans.

In mid-November, Indonesia set in motion the initial phase of
its early warning system, activating two sets of moored surface
buoys off western Sumatra to pick up and transmit data about sea
tremors from ocean floor sensors.

The instruments were the first of a total of 15 sets, along
with more than 100 seismographs, due to be installed along the
coast of the vast archipelago -- the country hardest hit by the
Dec. 26, 2004 tragedy.

Information will be conveyed via satellite to a monitoring
station in West Sumatra province, from which it will be relayed
to the public via mobile text message, e-mail, fax and telephone.

"The more instruments we have, the better it will be," Edi
Prihantoro, an official at the Indonesian research and technology
ministry, said last month.

Thailand set up the National Disaster Warning Center in May
2005 to deal with both the aftermath of the tsunami and to ward
off future catastrophes, and the country's early warning system
will soon be in place.

The government is due to install warning towers in Phuket by
year's end, with another 32 towers scheduled to be set up along
the country's Andaman coast by March.

"I think in terms of preparedness, Thailand is doing extremely
well," says Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the World Health
Organization's deputy regional director for Southeast Asia.

"In fact, they have the best preparedness plan already. Other
countries are also following Thailand's example."

India's federal cabinet in October approved plans to set up a
national tsunami alert system in the southern city of Hyderabad,
but it is not expected to be fully operational for another two
years.

In Sri Lanka, where 31,000 people were killed, the government
introduced legislation this year to help manage future disasters,
but no warning system has been instituted.

"We had bipartisan support to implement this. We were
unprepared for the tsunami and now we have identified what has to
be done to mitigate the effects of a disaster," says opposition
lawmaker Mahinda Samarasinghe.

Beyond the installation of high-tech sensors, Indian Ocean
countries are focusing on community awareness -- a key component
of any emergency strategy, as many people simply did not
understand the danger posed by the tsunami.

"Community education programs are also critical, not just for
the next tsunami but for a variety of hazards," says Eric P.
Schwartz, UN deputy special envoy for tsunami recovery.

"It's not just about putting buoys in the water. It's more
critical to have a community that can recognize the warning signs
and react."

False alarms are another concern. On March 29, after another
underwater earthquake off Indonesia, the Indian government warned
people in its southern coastal areas that a tsunami might hit
again, causing widespread panic.

In Ton Sai, Fatima says she is pleased with her government's
efforts, but also noted that she was no longer afraid of the
killer waves.

"It won't happen again for a long time. My old relatives say
they had seen a tsunami before, but it wasn't nearly as big as
this one. Last time it was just like a flash of water in the
village -- there wasn't much damage," she says.

But some expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of
warning systems, like 31-year-old Erna Wati, a mother of four
living in the Indonesian village of Gado, in devastated Aceh
province.

"We heard from the newspaper that a warning system is coming,
but we've only so far heard warnings from fortune tellers -- and
we don't believe them," she says.

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AFP

GetAFP 2.10 -- DEC 15, 2005 10:16:22