Tsunami-battered Asia slow to prepare for new disaster

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Friday (AFP) Aftershocks still jolt Indonesia six months after the huge quake and tsunamis that took Asia by surprise, but despite an urgent need to prepare for a new catastrophe, little has been achieved.

Warning systems, evacuation procedures and a swift emergency response to future disaster were promised after December 26, when a magnitude-9.3 tremor off Sumatra island left 180,000 people dead around the Indonesian ocean.

The need to put in place contingency plans for an event scientists say is a near certainty was underlined on March 28 when an 8.7 quake exploded off Sumatra, killing more than 900 people and spreading region-wide panic. "The 28th of March was a wake up call for all of us about the need for preparedness," said Michele Lipner, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Indonesia's battered region of Aceh.

Yet, despite the two major earthquakes that were among the strongest ever recorded, none of the 11 countries affected by the tsunamis have completed an effective warning system and few are ready to cope with subsequent disasters.

In Indonesia, which has been hit by more than 4,000 tremors since December 26, the government has not even managed to mount a basic public information campaign on what to do when the next big one strikes.

"This is something that we are well aware needs to happen," says Lipner, whose office walls in Aceh are covered with charts pinpointing the epicentre of every earthquake this year.

"A recent aftershock of 5.6 created some panic because there was a coincidentally high tide. There is a jitteriness in the population and a tendency to panic."

The International Organisation for Migration has mounted a successful education programme on the island of Nias -- worst affected by the March quake -- but other patchwork information campaigns offer conflicting advice. In the meantime, many Aceh residents have taken matters into their own hands. In the minutes after the March tremor, many were seen running through the streets with pre-packed bundles of clothes and provisions.

More progress appears to have been made in Thailand which, keen to safeguard its lucrative tourism industry, staged evacuation drills in beachside resorts in late April, with high pitched alarms preluding a mass evacuation to high ground.

In India, however, there was heavy criticism of television, radio and loud hailer tsunami alerts issued on March 28. Activists said they caused unnecessary panic. "We need to do more and in a coordinated way all along the coast. Drills must be practised involving the local villagers so that there is no delay," said Sarbani Das Roy of the Ireland-based Hope Foundation.

"The response needs to be planned in a better way instead of creating fear and panic." Key to any disaster preparation is the establishment of region-wide tsunami warning systems. These are expected to take several years to develop, but wrangling over the location and type used has done little to expedite matters.

India says it will have a tsunami warning system in place in the Indian Ocean by 2007, giving up to three hours notice to evacuate coastal areas, but needs Southeast Asian help to develop the 26 million dollar plan.

Although Indonesia is working with German assistance to install its own system and Australia is working on another, the goal of creating a coordinated network of national warning capabilities still looks a long way off. Indonesian Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said despite the frequent calamities that befall his country, it remains ill-prepared. His department has drafted a disaster management act that will help put logistics and goods in place.

Yet some officials acknowledge that if a catastrophe on the same scale as the tsunamis strike again, there is very little that can be done.

"If the same earthquake and the same tsunami hits this region, there's no way we can prevent an enormous loss of life. It is too huge an event for humans to defend themselves," said Aceh reconstruction chief Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.