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| Sunday, 30 January 2005 |
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Averting future disasters : History to the rescue by M. P. Muttiah Japanese Environmentalist, Tani Yoichi, says applying a historical knowledge, experience and awareness of tsunami could be helpful to save lives. Solidarity Network Asia and Miniamata's General Secretary, who visited the tsunami affected areas in the Southern parts of Sri Lanka, said the country could learn much from Kobe's experience though it was an earthquake.
He said the Japanese government declared emergency immediately after the earthquake that swallowed six thousand lives on January 17, 1995. Like the Sri Lankan armed forces, the Japanese Defence Forces did not have enough training and experience in handling such a dangerous situation. Firefighters were brought from other regions and cities. He said it was difficult to forecast earthquakes or tsunamis. Though a few scientists have warned about impending earthquakes, they could not forecast the exact time of occurrence. Referring to tsunami, the Japanese name for Harbour Wave, Yoichi said that there were three significant seismic wave phases. The first is P-wave, which is a compressional wave travelling through the earth's interior at a velocity ranging from approximately 8.0 kilometre per second near the crust-mantle interface to about 13.5 kilometre per second at the mantle core interface. "The second seismic phase of importance is the S-Wave or secondary wave. This phase travels through the earth's interior as a shear wave, following approximately the same travel path as the P-Wave for 6.7 kilometres per second to 8.0 kilometre per second near the shore. "The third seismic phase to be considered is the surface waves resulting from ground displacements propagating outward along the surface of the earth. These are measured in Richter scale". Yoichi said, during the 101 year period from 1900 to 2001, 796 tsunamis were observed in the Pacific Ocean, and 17 per cent of the total were generated near Japan. He said, where the typical water depth is about 4,000 metres, a tsunami travels at about 200 metre per-second. He said the tsunami that attacked South America in 1964 was very strong, and it took 22 hours to reach Japan and other areas in the Pacific. During the April, 1946 tsunami in Hawaii, ships anchored off the coasts observed tremendous wave, breaking on the shore but did not detect any change in sea level and their off-shore locations. This proved, that the mid-sea asking them is safer when the tsunami occurred. There should be communication with those in the mid-sea not to return to the shore. Those who are on the shore, should be warned to run to the highest elevations within a few minutes. He pointed out that these experiences could be made use of in educating people. There is no way to stop a tsunami once its set in motion, but there are ways to avoid getting killed by one. For example, in 1993, a tsunami hit Okushiri, Japan. People had been educated enough about the tsunami, that they went to a higher elevation the pajamas within minutes of warning, and it saved many lives. "The Japanese government invested billions in coastal defence against tsunami, by building concrete walls to blunt the impact of the waves. In the Pacific ocean Japan and the US have tsunami warning systems in the form of seismometers. When the officials detect a large shallow earth quake under the ocean they issue a warning. Japan had laid a series of bottom-pressurise sensors along a cable stretching out from its coastline. Depending on where the tsunami originated the sensor could give hours of warning time". The Japanese environmentalist said Sri Lanka and India's Andaman and Nicobar islands are in urgent need of monitoring and warning system. A regular monitoring system would be able to warn the people and the area prone to disasters. the experience of Thailand and Indonesia on the mangrove planting also could be considered. With regard to reconstruction of housing, he said tiles and iron-steel framework could be safe. Houses could be built on a higher elevation, and less-expensive workshops could be established for fishermen to continue their occupation. Speaking about Kobe's experience, Yoichi said that NGOs had worked together and supported each other, encouraging the affected to raise their own voices. They gathered in temples and schools and learned how to plan and implement projects from the citizens' perspectives for the Japanese central government does not build houses etc. Its main concern is to build infrastructure facilities such as roads. And a network was built in Japan, assisting each other at times of danger and concern. |
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