How well do you think that everyone has coped with the aftermath of the December 26 Tsunami?

Tsunami aftermath - recipe for disaster?

As the U.N. celebrated the centenary of the birth of former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld during the past week with a lecture entitled "The Tsunami Disaster : Beyond Relief Towards Development", what he would have made of how the organization had coped with the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami that devastated the Indian Ocean region?

After the tsunami there were a number of tasks to be done, some sooner than others, for example:

• Rescue people
• Provide people with food, water and shelter
• Treat people for physical and mental injuries
• Identify the dead
• Bury the dead (human and animal) and remove other sources of disease
• Reunite the living
• Reconstruction (housing, infrastructure and sources of income)
• Protect against repetition
• Environmental assessment and repair
• Learning lessons

From the beginning, there were a variety of reactions. For example some tourists already there pitched in, others kept out of the way. Some tourists due to arrive soon after came and spent money where they could, while others cancelled to keep out of the way. Some villagers and tribes wanted to get back to normal as soon as possible, others wanted to leave the area permanently. Some wanted to rebuild for themselves, others either expected "the authorities" to do it, or were simply too much in shock and grief to do so. Some countries welcomed all offers of help, others were choosier. Some preferred hi-tech early warning systems to guard against future tsunamis, others preferred to plant mangroves or to re-site villages. Some donations were free; others came with stings attached.

The disaster was unprecedented in modern times, not only for the number of countries affected, but also for the number of countries, organizations, and individuals not just willing, but insisting on helping. Co-ordination was therefore a high priority from the start, and everyone seemed happy for the U.N. to take on this role in the first few months. This had to be done without imposing top-down solutions; for optimum results, each of the many countries, towns, villages and families had to decide what was best for them - and some of them insisted on it. So, there were a lot of new conflicts to resolve.

Old conflicts needed to be resolved too, or to be set aside in some cases. For example there was conflict between Indonesia and Aceh separatists, and the USA's ban on military sales to Indonesia had to be relaxed so that transport planes could be used. This is where Hammarskjöld would have excelled, shuttling diplomatically between the parties.

A trained economist, Hammarskjöld would also have been keen to see the local economies (for example fishing and tourism) restored to sustainable levels. This would not necessarily mean a simple rebuilding of what was there before. For example, it might make more sense to restore mangroves at the sea shore as a defense against future storms and tsunamis rather than rebuild tourist facilities. Who gets to decide?

Fish catches were reduced as a result of the tsunami. Some coral reefs were damaged or covered in silt, and some mangroves destroyed, resulting in less shelter for fish, and in particular fewer nurseries for young fish. Some fishermen were killed, and many boats were lost and need to replaced, but with materials from where and with what money? Many tourist villages were destroyed, and for the time being at least, tourists are heading to other destinations. Should the tourist villages be replaced as they were or be replaced by larger, stronger big hotels using foreign investment? Or should other, less environmentally unfriendly sources of income be found?

7 months on, and there is still a great deal of rebuilding to be done, and many people are still not in their own homes, but it was and is a huge task. There are still many organizations involved, but the nature of the work has gradually moved on. There is still much to do, but an amazing amount has been done. I don't think Dag Hammarskjöld would be displeased, but he wouldn't be resting on his laurels, either.

Strong Quake Strikes Off Indonesian Coast

A magnitude 6 earthquake shook the sea bed off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra On Saturday, but there were no injuries or damage, nor from early earthquakes at the nearby island of Nias. There was no tsunami, but nerves were rattled.

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