Tsunami thoughts

December 26, 2004: It began like any other day. Being a holiday, most people were at home or in their respective towns attending to day-to-day needs. Coastal residents did not notice anything unusual about the ocean. The waves lapped gently on the shore as the sun shone brightly.

But before the end of the day, the very same ocean, the very same waves would devastate the entire coastal area, killing 40,000 people and rendering another one million homeless. Such devastation was unprecedented in recent memory and it was by any measure Sri Lanka's biggest natural disaster.

The cause was a huge earthquake off Indonesia measuring 9.3 on the Richter Scale. It triggered massive tsunami waves that battered the coastlines of 11 countries in Asia and Africa, killing more than 250,000 people. Sri Lanka was directly in the path of the killer waves and suffered the biggest number of casualties next to Indonesia.

Three years have passed since the Boxing Day tsunami. But the memories of the tsunami are still fresh in our minds. Such was the cataclysmic nature of the tsunami that no other event before or since had galvanised the Lankan nation into acting as one, regardless of differences.

It was a moment that brought all Lankans together as people from all walks of life scrambled to help their brethren who had lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods. No one cared whether the goods they had donated went to Matara or Ampara, whether the ultimate beneficiary was Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim.

The international community too responded very quickly to our call for help. India was one of the first countries to help us, despite the destruction and loss of lives wrought by the tsunami in its Southern coastal States. Many other countries, international organisations and NGOs came forward to help the welfare and rehabilitation effort.

Three years down the road, a different picture has emerged. It has been revealed that some donors have not been forthcoming with the grants they pledged. While this has impeded some rehabilitation and development work, the Government has been able to resettle nearly 80 per cent of the tsunami affected families.

Most of the hospitals, schools and infrastructure such as bridges, roads and the rail tracks have been fully rebuilt. Although hundreds of NGOs mushroomed after the tsunami, a few genuine ones among them have built a substantial number of houses.

While physical rehabilitation can conceivably be completed in a few years, healing the mental scars of tsunami victims is not so easy. There are many, including children, who had lost their entire families. Many others could not hope to restart their livelihoods. More attention should be paid to this aspect of the tsunami catastrophe.

Not only the tsunami victims, but also all others have to live with the constant fear of another tsunami. Sri Lankans can no longer afford to believe that they are in an earthquake/tsunami free zone.

Several places in Sri Lanka have experienced tremors over the last few years. The seabed off Indonesia is an earthquake-prone zone. The most recent earthquake in the area, in July this year, prompted mass evacuations in Indian Ocean countries but no major tsunami occurred.

The reaction to the tsunami warning on this occasion proved that Sri Lankans are very much alive to the threat posed by tsunami-causing earthquakes. As explained in our op-ed article, work is nearly complete on the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System.

This will be immensely useful for weather and geological agencies in Indian Ocean countries to keep track of any tsunami-generating earthquakes and inform the public in coastal areas accordingly. Needless to say, these warning centres must be manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to prevent any possibility of a calamity.

Elsewhere in the world, from the US to Japan, research is underway to learn more about earthquakes and tsunamis. Sri Lankan scientists should be involved in these efforts, along with their counterparts from Indian Ocean countries. Educating the coastal communities, including children, on safe evacuation procedures is also vital. Panic reactions should be avoided for the benefit of all.

We hope that the remaining work on resettlement and rehabilitation would be expedited by the authorities and agencies concerned so that all tsunami victims can put the dark events of December 26, 2004 behind and look forward to a brighter future.

As Sri Lankans, we can never forget this tragedy but the best course of action would be building capacity and ensuring preparedness to face any future tsunami.