Islands Business - Tsunami: LESSONS TO BE LEARNT

Need to improve peoples’ knowledge

Julian Makaa

Homes damaged in the tsunami devastation.

Fifty two people dead, more than three thousand homes destroyed and loss of personal belongings costing thousands of dollars have been reported following the devastating tsunami that struck western Solomon Islands last month.

But further assessments are still being conducted and given the vastness of the ocean to be travellled by a limited number of boats, accurate figures are hard to come by.

However, international and in-country support through funds and in-kind are still being received by the National Disaster Management (NDMO).

To-date funds received from donors stand at more than S$6 million, while in-country donations are nearing the S$100,000 mark.

When this edition went to press, almost 7200 bags of rice had been delivered but more are still expected to be delivered.

NDMO director Loti Yates says the immediate relief phase of this disaster will last about three weeks after which the recovery and rebuilding phase will follow.

Unlike cyclones which progressively develop so targeted communities are advised to prepare well in advance, sudden earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis such as the one that struck the western part of the Solomon Islands or Aceh in Indonesia a couple of years ago, are very difficult to be well prepared for.

Fortunately for the affected communities of Western and Choiseul Provinces in the Solomon Islands, the double natural disasters happened when people were awake.

One interesting point raised by some affected people was their own knowledge. As soon as they felt the strong earthquake, they all looked out to the sea and as soon as they saw the sea receding, they quickly alerted everyone in their villages to quickly get out and run for higher grounds.

This positive piece of information, according to Yates, was a direct result of a nation-wide tsunami drill his office had carried out in September last year.

The drill, he said, involved a tsunami wave generated by a major earthquake that occurred in the Philippines due to hit different parts of the country some eight hours later.

There were, however, other stories of some curious people moving out to see what was happening who were, sadly, killed by the giant wave.

A Wesley United Church bishop who was reported dead at Tapurai village on Simbo islands was killed trying to save his wife who was slow in getting to higher grounds.

There were a number of problems faced by the disaster unit.

Firstly, the ability to find available boats that can be chartered and loaded immediately with relief supplies to, if possible, move out in the evening of the first day.

This couldn’t have happened faster because there were fewer boats available at the Point Cruz wharf to be chartered immediately.

The few boats found however demanded cash upfront before they could set sail.

An example was the MV Lauru which is a shipping company owned by Choiseul Province.

A company official said its charter rate for 24 hours was S$300,000. But he demanded that a S$28,000 deposit be made first before it could agree.

The next problem was to do with supplies. In a town where there are no big stores, the speed to acquire much needed supplies was very slow.

Except for rice, which was purchased in containers from the local Solrais company and transported immediately to the wharf, the next problem concerned unloading from the containers and loading them on to boats.

This was evident when the hunt for boats was successful and three boats agreed to go on charter two days later.

Unloading and loading lasted 24 hours before the first boat could leave on the 4th day and the other two on the 5th day.

It was not only rice that was needed. Water, shelter, clothes, utensils, soap and other supplies that could go as family packs also needed to be bought.

But given the lack of big one-stop stores from which such supplies could be bought, a lot of time was spent moving around town to buy the necessary supplies.

Proper coordination of information too was another problem. While the amount of supplies being sent on the boats was easily available, it was very difficult to get quick receipts of what goods had been distributed to each village.

This was due to lack of readily available communication facilities in all affected communities although public servants tasked to deliver relief supplies had been well briefed.

While there were two-way radios available on all affected islands, the information supplied to NDMO in Honiara was often exaggerated.

For instance, one radio message received by two-way radio mentioned the total number of people affected in one village on one small island totalled 800.

On-site reports however, recorded 125. This problem affected the collection of data, so even after two weeks accurate information was still lacking.

Given these experiences, the National Disaster Council chairman, Fred Fakarii said it was necessary that more people outside the Home Affairs department be trained to know how to operate in such circumstances should a similar situation arise in the future.

“These people should be able to swiftly move into position and carry out their responsibilities,” he said.

At the moment, Fakarii said, “everything is somewhat chaotic because there are very few people trained”.

Fakarii also adds that perhaps this should be the next course of action for NDMO to focus on.

He also stressed that there is a need to run in-country training for the National Disaster Council members so that they know why it is important that they should fully participate as required by the national disaster act of 1987.

Meanwhile, Yates said a review of the act is well advanced and some of the experiences of this disaster may need to be included.

Yates said the new plan to recruit provincially-based disaster coordinators is another positive move by the government that would enhance the knowledge of communities to know more about what to do when a disaster, whether natural or man-made, occurs.