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Moving Forward Looking Back

Published on December 25, 2005 - Getting prepared in the post-tsunami era

A long with the shattered lives, homes and businesses caused by last year’s Andaman tsunami came an important shock to the Thai psyche: it can happen to us.

Until those deadly waves washed away 5,395 people from our shores, Thais strongly believed this country was impervious to major natural disasters.

“It has happened once and will happen again,” says Suranand Vejjajiva, minister of Prime Minister’s Office responsible for tsunami recovery. “The world has changed and the geography of our country has changed. Last December’s tsunami was just the first alarm bell. That’s why we must be serious about preparedness.”

The government has spent more than Bt7 billion on tsunami recovery, with another Bt1.3 billion coming from private sources. Much of this assistance went directly to the 55,000 people affected in the provinces of Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi, Trang, Satun and Ranong.

While Suranand is quick to discuss recovery achievements, he also stresses that a major typhoon, massive flood, earthquake, or another tsunami, could arrive at any time.

“This was Thailand’s inaugural experience with a natural disaster of this magnitude, and like anything you do for the first time, there’s much that can be learned,” Suranand advises.

Senator Niran Pitakwatchara, who has been monitoring tsunami relief operation from the beginning, agrees. He is advocating for an independent evaluation of all of Thailand’s tsunami response and relief activities.

“The purpose is to find out how we can do a better job when something like this happens again, because nature never ceases to amaze us,” Niran says.

Suranand explains that there is not yet any plan for an independent evaluation. But the government has regularly reviewed progress reports prepared by those agencies responsible for tsunami relief.
The military, which dispatched 7,000 personnel to affected areas during the first few months following the tsunami, has recently concluded its review, says Lt Gen Palangkoon Klahan, director of the military’s civil affairs division. He agrees with Niran that an independent assessment could be valuable.

“We have to be open to criticism. There is no question that we responded well under the circumstances, but there clearly were bottlenecks,” suggests Palangkoon. “We really were not prepared to handle so many bodies at one time, while also distributing food and water to people affected.

“Our training and availability of equipment could be improved. The military was among the first agencies to arrive to many areas, but it was not clear who was in charge, or what we were supposed to do other than provide security and use common sense in determining how to help.”

The lack of coordination between agencies was also a major problem, adds Anucha Mokawet, director general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. The failure of communication systems, especially the collapse of mobile phone services, made recovery more difficult.

“We could have saved more lives if we had set up portable communication units via satellite,” he recalls. “I still remember the day I was assisting people at Bang Nieng Beach [in Khao Lak] and villagers came to me weeping because their relatives were trapped under a collapsed building.
There was a crane in front of me, but I could not locate an operator nor call anyone to aid in the rescue.”

To Anucha, the most valuable asset during the relief operation was that so many people were available to help.

“It’s actually quite amazing that things went as well as they did in those first few days,” Anucha says. “Amid the massive chaos, people just applied their skills to provide as much help as they could.”

He notes that the area impacted was basically just a strip of land, which meant with the exception of Phi Phi and a few other islands, it was fairly easy to access. But if there is a major typhoon or flood, or even an earthquake, the area affected may be much more substantial and help much further away.

Anucha also concedes that there were significant problems in delivering basic life necessities to affected people. Many donated supplies were dropped in front of provincial offices, but no one was there to sort or to distribute them.

‘We sure could have used those supplies,” says Arun Klatalay, who evacuated from Koh Pratong to Wat Samakhitham temple on the mainland of Phang-nga along with some 1,000 other tsunami refugees. “We were basically on our own from day one. There was no help or communication from officials, just the villagers and later the NGOs who came to assist.”

Non-government organisations experienced similar problems. Pakpoom Witantirawat, coordinator of Save Andaman Network, which was established to aid fishing communities affected by the tsunami, is frustrated with the lack of coordination amongst aid organisations.

“There were lots of donors and many people helping, but it would have been better to give them some direction. Some areas got too much help, and some got very little. We don’t want to constrain their generosity, but I’m sure these organisations want to make sure their resources are generating maximum benefit,” urges Pakpoom.

Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan, acting director of the Central Institute of Forensic Sciences, says the lack of a plan to deal with the casualties made identification and handling of bodies extremely difficult.

“For example, we did not have a morgue,” she recalls. “Bodies had to be laid on open temple grounds. We had to shift the bodies around without proper equipment while officials and relatives were traversing the same grounds undertaking forensic work or searching for loved ones. This is against forensic science, creates public hygiene problem and could spread disease.”

Looking forward, Phan Wannamethee, secretary general of the Thai Red Cross Society, insists that effective disaster preparedness and relief planning must be done with participation of people in the affected areas. His organisation is preparing training plans to increase the capacity of officials and villagers to respond to large-scale disasters.

“We have to build operation centres and warehouses for equipment in villages and to train people to use them,” Phan says. “We are training the trainers and will also build a network centre for communication in Phuket so that people there can coordinate with Bangkok when a major disaster occurs.”

Niran agrees that preparedness with local participation in disaster prone areas is key to minimising the loss of life.

“It’s good to build the hardware [such as warning systems], but the decisive factor as to whether or not we are prepared is that people on the ground know what to do when disaster strikes,” the senator says.

Suranand says Thailand is ready to handle the next catastrophe. “As long as people don’t panic when it arrives,” he stresses.

Nature will eventually test us again, revealing to everyone how well we learned the lessons the tsunami left behind.

With additional reporting from Subhatra Bhumiprabhas and Pennapa Hongthong.
Nantiya Tangwisutjit
THE NATION