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Human tragedy,
more than physical damage, places the Tsunami among worst water-related
disasters ever.
| Pieter Waalewijn and Daniel Renault ¹ |
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Introduction |
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The tsunami that ravaged the coasts of the Indian Ocean on the morning
of 26 December 2004 will be in global collective memory for many years.
The tsunami hit the coast of 12 countries and the victims represent
more than 40 nationalities, making this a disaster of global proportions.
The sudden disaster directly affected many people, and subsequently
aroused concerns and compassion from all over the world. Many factors
influence the impact of a disaster. This paper will take the impact
of the flood on the agricultural sector as a starting point. Amidst
all confusion and pledges for help there was a sensation that this
might be the biggest flood or natural disaster in recorded history.
Dazzling figures soon showed that it was not the largest, but still
one of the deadliest of recent history. Now that damage assessments
have been completed and rehabilitation is ongoing, it can be worthwhile
to compare the extent of the tsunami-flood with other floods. Flood
data are always complex and fuzzy, as it is hard to tell in an emergency
what the exact extent of the particular event was. Nevertheless, this
comparison can put the disaster in the right perspective and point
at the critical elements in this particular disaster to be accounted
for in (agriculture) rehabilitation strategies. |
From a low ranking for flooded/affected areas....... |
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On 22 December 2004 heaviest rains in 20 years resulted in overflowing
of the rivers in the Cape Provinces of South Africa. Roads and Bridges
were swept away. For the people who were affected it is an event that
will not soon be forgotten. It can be assumed, however, that the majority
of the world population has never heard about this flood. Still, the
affected area is almost as big as the entire area affected by the
tsunami. The largest flood of 2004 in terms of area affected was caused
by heavy rain in Brazil. More than 2 million square kilometres were
affected². The table below gives figures for the largest floods
of 2004 (in sq. km.). |
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Country |
Affected Area (km²) |
Main Cause |
Date |
| 1 |
Brazil |
2,019,000 |
Heavy rain |
Jan-Mar |
| 2 |
Australia |
1,232,000 |
Monsoonal rain |
Jan-Feb |
| 3 |
India , Bangladesh , Myanmar |
1,163,000 |
Monsoonal rain |
Aug-Sep |
| 4 |
Russia and Belarus |
840,000 |
Rain and snowmelt |
April |
| 5 |
India and Pakistan |
638,400 |
Monsoonal rain |
August |
| Table 1: Five largest
floods in 2004 (in terms of total area affected) Based on: Dartmouth
Flood Observatory, 2004 (DFO). |
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On this list, the tsunami would occupy the 53 rd place with 55,440
km², immediately after the flood of the Crooked Creek in the
USA , killing 3 people and little above the December 22 flood in South
Africa . Since December 26 (until 5/5/2005 ) there have been 23 floods
with a larger affected area than the tsunami, the largest of which
is the recent flooding of the Danube in March/April with an affected
area of 673,500 km² (DFO, 2005). These figures are very high
and do not refer only to arable land, the main concern of this article.
As far as known from all 2004 disasters, the largest affected areas
of arable land were: |
| |
Country |
Agriculture areas flooded
(hectares) |
Main Cause |
Date |
| 1 |
China ( Upper Yangtze ) |
412,000 |
Heavy Rain |
Sep |
| 2 |
Macedonia |
380,000 |
Heavy Rain |
Jun |
| 3 |
(Northern) Thailand |
378,000 |
Heavy Monsoon |
Aug-Sep |
| 4 |
China (Huai He Tributaries) |
154,000 |
Heavy Rain |
Jul |
| 5 |
Bosnia , Croatia and Romania |
120,000 |
Heavy Rain |
Apr-May |
| Table 2: Five largest
floods in 2004 (in terms of agricultural area affected) Based
on: Dartmouth Flood Observatory, 2004. |
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| With around 65,000 agriculture hectares affected
(FAO, 2005), the tsunami occupies a modest 9 th place in this list.
These figures give the impression that the tsunami is not a very large
disaster, and it wasn't in this respect. Although water-related disasters
are on the increase, 2004 was not an exceptional year. Every year
dozens of floods inundate areas that are ten times larger than that
of the tsunami. |
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| Map 1: Major floods reported in
2004. Source: Dartmouth Flood Obseratory, 2004. |
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In another respect, however, the tsunami stands
out among 2004 floods. With regard to economic damage, the tsunami
competes with the Rananim Typhoon in China . Both disasters caused
damages of over 2 billion USD (DFO, 2004). The EMDAT Emergency Disaster
Database of OFDA/CRED gives higher estimates for total tsunami damages
(almost 8 billion USD), but that is only slightly more than estimated
damages of monsoon floods in Bangladesh and three consecutive typhoons
that passed over the United States of America in 2004. For comparison,
the natural disaster causing most economic damage in 2004 was the
October Niigata earthquake ( Japan ) with an estimated damage of 28
billion USD (EMDAT, 2005); an event hardly noticed by the global community.
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.......to an extremely high death toll
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Technically speaking, the effects of the tsunami were minor
(or average) if compared to other floods. Most striking, however,
is the death toll of the tsunami. An estimated 250,000 people
have been killed by the waves. Notwithstanding the small area
affected, this is by far the highest death toll of a flood in
recent years. Other floods of 2004 with high numbers of casualties
were May and September (Hurricane Jeanne) floods in Central
America and monsoon-induced floods in India, Bangladesh and
Myanmar, all taking 'only'3,000 lives. With 5 million people
displaced after the tsunami, the tsunami also has a much wider
effect than most of the other floods. Only the above-mentioned
monsoon-floods caused more people to (temporarily) leave their
homes. |
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| Satellite images of Banda
Aceh before and after the waves. Across the whole region,
people lived close to the shore, that was never considered
a threat before. |
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It is clear that the impact of the disaster has everything to do with
the human dimension. EMDAT gives a list of the worst floods of the
last century. This shows that the December 2004 Tsunami is one of
the worst flood disasters ever in terms of human death toll.
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Countries
most affected by Water-related Disasters (1900-2005)
sorted by number of people killed and affected
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| Country
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Date
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Killed
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Country
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Date
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People
Affected |
| China P Rep |
Jul-1931 |
3,700,000 |
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China P Rep |
6-Aug-1998 |
238,973,000 |
| China P Rep |
Jul-1959 |
2,000,000 |
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China P Rep |
18-May-1991 |
210,232,227 |
| China P Rep |
Jul-1939 |
500,000 |
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China P Rep |
Jun-2002 |
190,035,257 |
| Indian Ocean |
Dec-2004 |
250,000 |
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China P Rep |
Jul-1996 |
154,634,000 |
| China P Rep |
1935 |
142,000 |
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China P Rep |
23-Jun-2003 |
150,146,000 |
| China P Rep |
1911 |
100,000 |
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India |
7-Jul-1993 |
128,000,000 |
| China P Rep |
Jul-1949 |
57,000 |
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China P Rep |
May-1995 |
114,470,249 |
| Guatemala |
Oct-1949 |
40,000 |
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China P Rep |
Jun-1999 |
101,024,000 |
| China P Rep |
Aug-1954 |
30,000 |
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China P Rep |
14-Jul-1989 |
100,010,000 |
| Venezuela |
19-Dec-1999 |
30,000 |
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China P Rep |
Jun-1994 |
78,974,400 |
| Bangladesh |
Jul-1974 |
28,700 |
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~ Indian Ocean |
Dec- 2004 |
5,000,000 |
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Table 3: Countries most affected by Water-related Disasters
(1900-2005). Based on: "EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International
Disaster Database, Université catholique de Louvain ,
Brussels , Belgium ". |
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Vulnerability, hazards and resilience
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The above shows the obvious: not all floods are disasters and disasters
are complex events with many dimensions. The tsunami is a grave disaster,
mainly because of the number of casualties. That is what distinguishes
it from the South African flood for example.
In disaster studies use is often made of the simple equation:
Risk = Hazard * Vulnerability
In the equation 'risk' stands for the probability of harmful consequences
that result from the interaction of hazards and vulnerable conditions.
Hazards are natural or human-induced potentially damaging events.
Vulnerability refers to the degree to which a society is susceptible
to the impact of hazards. Vulnerability has technical, social, economic
and political dimensions, as these all influence the exposure of one's
livelihood to a disaster. In this way of thinking 'natural disasters'
can have a large human component: obviously in the vulnerability,
but also in the hazard. The increase of water-related disasters in
recent history has to do with both sides of the equation. More and
more people inhabit low-lying delta areas that are prone to inundation,
and intensity and frequency of hazards increase due to human-induced
factors, i.e. deforestation, canalisation and climate change. |
The reason that most floods do not cause these high numbers
of casualties is that people in disaster-prone areas have learned
to cope with the floods, either by reducing the hazard or the
vulnerability. The victims of the tsunami, however, were hit
by a disaster resulting from a hazard that was unknown. They
were unprotected from the hazard, unaware of the risk and unprepared
for the disaster that suddenly struck them. In a way, the tsunami
was a rare case of 'real' natural disaster, as it was not in
any known way induced by humans, nor were victims aware of warning
signals such as the receding of the sea. |
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| The mosque of Meulaboh
still stood after the Tsunami, surrounded by debris of
wooden houses, boats, etc. More than half of the population
of the city was reported dead or missing (more than 20,000
people). |
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Still, the impact of the disaster was different for more vulnerable
groups. Concrete dwellings offered better protection than wooden houses.
Unwittingly, people staying in concrete homes or further from the
coast were less vulnerable to the hazard. (This is not an economic
division however, as the numerous wooden beach-front tourist bungalows
were as vulnerable as the simple huts of fishermen.)
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Mitigating disaster risks needs to focus on reduction of hazards and
vulnerabilities. With an unpredictable tsunami-hazard, reduction of
the hazard is unlikely. The special cause of the floods - not by high
rainfall or snowmelt and swelling of rivers - resulted in a very widespread
and scattered flooded area. The total area is small, but it covers
a stretch of thousands of kilometres of coast in 12 countries. Not
much can be done to block the waves, but integrated coastal area management
(ICAM) can serve to diminish the impact of the waves. It should be
accepted that the waves can come a second time, with the same force,
covering the same area. As the figures tell, the flooded area is very
small, but costs of protecting would be enormous and will have numerous
undesired side-effects. The scattered and long coastal stretch can
not be protected.
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| A woman weeps over the
loss of her three children at Tharangambadi, India, Thursday,
Jan. 6, 2005. [AP] |
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The biggest improvement in risk management can be achieved by
targeting on the vulnerabilities of the coastal communities.
ICAM can reduce vulnerability in a technical way. Reconstruction
of facilities can take into account the different coastal zones,
so that critical services for agriculture (markets/suppliers/
storehouse/veterinary services) as well as farm dwellings are
located further from the shore, thereby greatly improving the
resilience of the agro-ecological system. |
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| The fact that the flooded area is a long and narrow
stretch has thus both advantages and disadvantages for recovery. An
early warning system will be another useful technical means to reduce
vulnerability. |
Social and economic vulnerability reduction strategies would include
capacity building of communities. Awareness raising (or in this case,
maintaining awareness) on what to do in the occurrence of a similar
disaster and increasing local purchase power are ways to strengthen
local coping mechanisms. National and local government and other supporting
organisations should regularly update disaster preparedness plans,
so that recovery can be swift. This needs strong political commitment
and the understanding that the heaviest impact of the tsunami was
on people, their livelihoods and their capabilities, and not so much
the technical damage. The (ICAM) strategies need to focus also on
the structural causes of vulnerability. Land zoning is not simply
changing the habits of the coastal communities. It is likely that
there are many social, economic and political reasons why people live
in crowded villages near the shore. ICAM strategies must incorporate
the aspirations of the communities and address factors that inhibit
them from diversification and change of landuse, making it a complex
and political process. Already in this stage of the recovery process,
peoples' capabilities should be tapped and enforced. Since the communities
lost many of their members, capacities should be redeveloped, also
in the agricultural sector.
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Conclusion
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| Salinity Training in
Sri Lanka. Capacitating communities to assess and manage
damages of the tsunami themselves builds confidence
and is a first step towards sustainable rehabilitation. |
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To conclude, it can be stated
that although the tsunami affected area was small and damages
average, the disaster heavily affected the coastal communities
as they were unprepared for the disaster. (Agriculture) rehabilitation
should, more than at present, account for this human dimension
of the tsunami. Mere reconstruction does not suffice, as it
does not target the most critical causes of the tragedy. Land
zoning will be very useful, but only if it focuses on vulnerability
in more than only the technical sense. Finally, vulnerability
of coastal community to the tsunami-threat should be viewed
in a broader sense. Finally, vulnerability of coastal community
to the tsunami-threat should be viewed in a broader sense. |
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| Where the tsunami-hazard is unpredictable and perhaps
small, risks exist in other areas as well, as was demonstrated by
the heavy floods that added to the disaster in part of the tsunami-affected
region. A stronger focus on the complex interplay between society
and the agro-ecological system is needed to ensure the regrowth of
thriving agricultural communities along the Indian Coast. |
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¹ Pieter Waalewijn is consultant with
FAO-Agriculture Department on the Tsunami. Daniel Renault is senior
officer in the FAO Land and Water division and tsunami-focal point
for the Agriculture Department of FAO.
² These are not
flooded areas but rather the extent of geographic regions affected
by flooding. Source: Dartmouth Flood Observatory
³ Still,
the impact of the disaster was different for more vulnerable groups.
Concrete dwellings offered better protection than wooden houses. Unwittingly,
people staying in concrete homes or further from the coast were less
vulnerable to the hazard. (This is not an economic division however,
as the numerous wooden beach-front tourist bungalows were as vulnerable
as the simple huts of fishermen.)
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References
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• Brakenridge,
G.R., Anderson, E., Caquard, S., 2004, Global Register of Major Flood
Events, Dartmouth Flood Observatory, Hanover, USA, digital media,
http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Efloods/Archives/2004sum.htm
•
Brakenridge, G.R., Anderson, E., Caquard, S., 2005, Global Register
of Major Flood Events, Dartmouth Flood Observatory, Hanover, USA,
digital media, http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Efloods/Archives/2005sum.htm
• EMDAT-data drawn on 5/5/2005 from: "EM-DAT:
The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database - www.em-dat.net - Université
Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgium ", http://www.em-dat.net/index.htm
• FAO, 2005, A regional strategic framework for
reclamation of salt-affected soils and agriculture recovery in tsunami-affected
areas, http://www.fao.org/ag/tsunami/home/home.html
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