#dnaEdit: Tsunami trauma

The tsunami of 2004, perhaps the worst natural disaster in recent years, had struck with a force akin to several atomic blasts. A 9.1 magnitude earthquake tore a huge chunk of the Indian Ocean bed and displaced billions of gallons of water;  2,40,000 people were washed away by giant tidal waves that the quake triggered. The world was caught unawares as the ocean invaded the land mass, leaving a trail of destruction along the coasts of 12 countries across Asia and Africa, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Somalia, Tanzania, Seychelles, Bangladesh and Kenya. All that was left were heart-wrenching tales of loss and displacement, and a few stories of miraculous survival. It revealed an utter sense of helplessness and served  as a dire reminder of the need to develop a mechanism for early detection of such earthquakes, and a disaster management plan. As per United Nations estimates, the economic loss caused by the tsunami was $9.9 billion, affecting the livelihoods of 1.4 million people. 

The series of events across the world observing the 10th anniversary on December 26 was an occasion of remembrance as well as stocktaking. The Hyogo Framework for Action, adopted by 168 governments in 2005 at the United Nations conference held at Kobe, Hyogo, in Japan in January 2005 set up a 2005-2015 action plan towards reducing disaster risk, resilience-building and fortifying the coastlines to minimise the scale of destruction. It was convened to discuss the effects of tsunami of December, 2004. It was a follow-up conference to the one held in Yokohama in 1994 on prevention and management of disaster and which has come to be known as Yokohama strategy. 

India’s long coastline and population make it particularly vulnerable to such disasters. Its contribution of $1million to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific multi-donor trust fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness in Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian Countries was timely. The money will be utilised in strengthening early warning systems. The vulnerable communities will receive warning information in advance and evacuation operations can then be set in motion. The tsunami has taught how crucial logistical preparations are in the mitigation of natural calamities. Recall how the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh governments worked in tandem with the Centre, the Indian National Coastal, Ocean Information Systems and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) during cyclone Hudhud in 2014, resulting in zero loss of lives. It is the same Odisha that lost 10,000 people during the super cyclone of 1999. While this may serve as an example of how effective timely intervention can be, India’s disaster management system is still grossly inadequate. The handling of the recent Kashmir floods is a case in point. The total economic loss of the state is pegged at $16 billion.  The damage to the ecosystem and the trauma of the affected people was evident in the stark images of the post-flood situation. 

The NDMA had been severely criticised by the Comptroller and Auditor General for failing to perform its functions stipulated under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The reasons for its failures are not hard to find. The authority lacks manpower and financial muscle, as a result of which it has failed to take up any major initiative in mainstreaming disaster management. This failure, coupled with the lack of disaster-management infrastructure and country’s knee-jerk reactions in the face of natural calamities, comes at great human cost. In 2013 alone 6,000 lives were lost. Yet, we continue to show indifference, seldom learning from the mistakes in the face of recurring disasters.