2004 South Asian Tsunami

On the 26 of December 2004, the earth heaved, the sea rose and the world changed. 
People in 14 countries (mostly Indonesia, followed by Sri Lanka, India and Thailand) experienced a tsunami that is said to be the deadliest tsunami in history as it released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs and caused waves up to 15 meters high in some places. And a result, by the end of the day, more than 150,000 people were dead or missing and millions more were homeless and thousands of homes were destroyed. The ignorance of the general public to the responding of signs of tsunami and slow evacuation due to poor accessibility to disaster areas was one of underlying causes as to way there was such a high death toll.  Having said this, the aftermath of the tsunami caused a lot of social, political and economical for the affected countries.

Northern Shore of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia

Top picture: June 2003, 2004

Bottom: December 28, 3004                                                                                        

Social Impact

• In Sri Lanka, coastal drinking water supply was affected by the tsunami as it destroyed and contaminated 40,000 coastal area wells. Efforts to restore wells by pumping out seawater have been sometimes counterproductive, as excessive pumping allows more seawater to enter the aquifer from below and  this pumping also causes the walls to collapse.
• The powerful waves destroyed many homes, left people without money and children without parents. Hence to survive the aftermath of the disaster,  many victims resulted to looting for food and money  which created a lot chaos and confusion within the countries.( As seen in the movie, victims who were caught looting were not spared and were sent to jail.)

•  Female-headed households  present a particular vulnerability  as the women have to deal with their own trauma prolonged stress and anxiety, loss of livelihood and at the same time be strong and take care of their children.

(A child mourn for the loss of his mother.)

• I feel that disasters always have the greatest impact on children because often enough, thousands of children witness the deaths of their own parents. I am certain such an experience will haunt them for life, cause a lot of psychological problems for the child and great pain if child receive proper post-disaster care.  In fact, without guidance, love and nurturing from either a guardian or from parents, the child might up astray and commit crimes and hence, causing social problems.

 

•  The burning of  identified bodies caused a lot of moral and ethical controversies . Although it was vital to contain the spread of contagious diseases,  it was always important for bodies to be identified so that families who lost their loved ones would at least have some form of 'closure'.   

Economic Impact

• Damage that occured during or immediately after the disasters caused the total or partial destruction of assets, buildings and infrastructure, stocks and  natural resources.

1.  This completely disrupted production for companies or, lead to an increase in production cost due to the scarcity of raw materials. 
2. Another economic change that followed shortly after, was higher operational costs, lower revenues in the provision of essential services.
3. Lastly, the government had to fork out money for unexpected expenditures such as humanitarian services, debris removal as well as relocation of human settlements.

 

(Elephant used to help remove debris)

For example, in Thailand, tourism contributes to a 5-6% of the country's Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) with a total of 64.7% of the population dependent on the tourism and its related industries (fishing, food vendors, handcrafts) Most areas that were worst hit were areas that depend largely on tourism. For instance, in Phang  Nga alone the disaster claimed approximated 4 thousand lives and left 5000 unemployed. Altogether Thailand incurred a 72,000 million $ of damage and loss to the tourism industry. And a result, financial injection from other countries was to procure productive assets that were swept away and hence incurring debts for the country.

Political Impact

• The governments reputations were tarnished for not having effective public health management, earthquake/tsunami warning system, systematic evacuation routes and also for having low flight frequencies out of the countries.
• Governments were also blamed for not managing or planning the use of lane properly; high concentration of people in danger areas.
• There also have been possible diplomacy outcomes. For instance, the Australian government's quick response in terms of providing financial injection and providing human resources was suggested to be because of it's strong interest to assert it's leadership in the region.