A ripple in development? - Channel Research

Indonesia also has new legislation and new institutions, but they
are still not fully operational. Guidelines are still being developed and
roles and responsibilities still need to be clearly defined. However, there
is a clear willingness to improve and build appropriate disaster management
systems, which will take time. There is a shift from focusing only
on response to also include preparedness, a dimension reflected in the
new laws and guidelines.
The Maldives had undertaken some training and rehearsals for
small-scale disasters before the tsunami, but there was no preparation or
training for large-scale disasters. The Maldives has created some of the
institutions necessary for Disaster Risk Management 70 such as the
NDMC, but the Disaster Management Act 71 is still in draft form. For
the Maldives the biggest threat is probably climate change rather than
seismic disaster events. Climate change will be experienced initially as
increased frequency of disaster events such as floods and tidal surges,
and possibly more frequent or destructive tropical cyclones 72 .
5.3 Changes in organisational knowledge
The Document Review has highlighted the degree to which there an
increasing volume of documents published on disaster risk reduction by
international, governmental and NGO institutions. The aftermath of
the tsunami has prompted a great deal of research on tsunamis and the
extent of the tsunami hazard. As recently as 2004 a manual on community-based
disaster risk management in the region barely referred to
tsunamis 73 . Since the tsunami there has been a great deal of attention to
at least the tsunami risk, with investigation into historic tsunamis to
establish their past occurrence and likely return period 74 .
In Sri Lanka there was also some evidence that attention to and
knowledge of other hazards was growing. The reasons for this were
70
Muhusin, A. (2007). Disaster Risk Reduction through people centered National Multi Multi-hazard
Early Warning System in the context of Maldives Paper presented at the Fourth Technical Conference
on Management of Meteorological and Hydrological Services in Asia Islamabad, 5–9 February
2007.
71
Disaster Management Act 2006, revised on 3rd October 2007 (not yet enacted). (2007).
72
A recent report from the World Bank notes that while the incidence of natural disasters is increasing
the incidence of flooding and windstorms is increasing much more rapidly than for other types
of natural disasters. Parker, R., Little, K., & Heuser, S. (2007). Development Actions and the
Rising Incidence of Disasters (Evaluation Brief 4). Washington: World Bank.
73
Abarquez, I., & Murshed, Z. (2004). Community-based disaster risk management: field practitioner’s
handbook. Bangkok: Asia Disaster Preparedness Center.
74
Bondevik, S. (2008). Earth science: The sands of tsunami time. Nature, 455(7217), 1183–1184.
Dahanayake, K., & Kulasena, N. (2008). Geological Evidence for Paleo-Tsunamis in Sri Lanka.
Science of Tsunami Hazards, 27(2), 54–61. Ikelman, J. (2007, 03 October). There and Back Again:
Old Tsunami Data Come Full Circle. Jankaew, K., Atwater, B. F., Sawai, Y., Choowong, M., Charoentitirat,
T., Martin, M. E., & Prendergast, A. (2008). Medieval forewarning of the 2004 Indian Ocean
tsunami in Thailand. Nature, 455(7217), 1228–1231. Monecke, K., Finger, W., Klarer, D., Kongko,
W., McAdoo, B. G., Moore, A. L., & Sudrajat, S. U. (2008). A 1,000-year sediment record of tsunami
recurrence in northern Sumatra. Nature, 455(7217), 1232–1234. Wattegama, C. (2005,
January). The seven tsunamis that hit the isle of Lanka. Retrieved 21 November 2008
89