Tsunami Shock The whole world was shocked with news of the death of over 60,000 people in Asia on the early morning of December, 26, 2004, due to the seismic sea waves triggered by an earthquake (Tsunami) that had its epicentre near the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Among seven worst affected nations, coastal India suffered severe damages due to this natural calamity. Between 7.30 and 9 a.m., on Sunday huge waves slammed the Indian coastline taking those near the seashore by complete surprise. There was little time for anyone to react as the waves swept away everything within a couple of kilometres from the sea. Many thousand people were missing even on Tuesday, that is 48 hours after the disaster, as the death toll in India crossed 12,000. The worst affected states in India are Tamilnadu, Andhrapradesh, Pondecherry and Andaman and Nicobar islands. About 500 villages across 1000 km of the Tamil Nadu coast line were heat by Tsunamis even up to 16 meters high that penetrated 1-2 km into the main land. The state recorded the largest loss of life with nearby Pondicherry, accounting for some 4,500 dead. Unofficial estimates were much higher with officials saying many thousands of people were missing. Survivors were traumatised by losses of family members. Hundreds of thousands of survivors became homeless and lost their means of livelihoods. The two severely affected districts in Tamilnadu are Nagapattinam and Cuddalore. The death toll in the wake of tsunami has touched 2,500 in the coastal district of Nagapattinam. Mass burial of corpses continued for the second day on the Nagapattinam coast. Several fishing villages were washed away in this district and hundreds and thousands of poor fishermen families have lost their meagre means of livelihoods which has reduced their capability to cope with this disaster in the long run to a great extent. Calamity struck Cuddalore also in the form of seismic waves, claiming over 900 lives, mostly children and women, in the coastal villages of this district. Hundreds of people are said to be missing and several others were injured. Even seasoned fishermen could not swim against the ferocious waves, while women and children fell hapless victim to the fury of the sea. The most affected coastal villages among others are Nallavadu, Suba Uppalavadi, Thallangudi, Thevanampattinam, Sonankuppam, Samiarpettai, Thirumulaivasal (ooratchi), Pudhukuppam, Muzhukkuthurai, MGR Thittu, Killai, Periakuppam and Chinnur. Several boats were washed away, and the fate of fishermen who set sail is not known. The people in the coastal areas are still in the grip of fear. A report from Thirumulaivasal (ooratchi) is enclosed. The after-effects of the Tsunami attack Forty eight hours after the giant waves hammered Indian shores, the main worry now is how to handle the wave of epidemic that is waiting to be lashed on the survivors. With thousands of bodies rotting and infrastructure in collapse, authorities fear an epidemic and severe shortage of food supplies along south Indian coastline and in Andaman and Nicobar islands. The largest relief operation of human history is woefully short of medicines, food and other relief material as thousands crowd into temporary relief centres. The followings are the major areas of concern in the immediate relief works: Outbreak of diseases The biggest health challenges are the threat of waterborne diseases, particularly malaria and diarrhoea, as well as respiratory tract infections, as reported by the medical authorities. Already families of victims sheltered in the relief centres are suffering from fever and diarrhoea due to unhygienic conditions in the centres. Another worry for the medical men is the carcass of animals and bodies human beings lying unattended in the affected areas. The Nagapattinam coast has started stinking with foul smell from the highly decomposed corpses lying in Nagapattinam and Velankanni coastal belt. Human and animal bodies need to be cleared immediately. Scarcity of drinking water Drinking water for millions has been polluted which can cause further diseases. Ways of providing safe drinking water to the survivors are to be found. There is an acute need of providing the victims with proper sanitation in the relief camps. The relief works require huge quantities of water-purifying tablets, ORS packets etc for the victims. Due to this Tsunami havoc hundreds of drinking water wells in seaside villages are now salty and hence unfit for consumption. There has been no potable water in scores of fishermen hamlets in the coastal belt for the past two days and the situation is likely to continue for another fortnight. The strong tsunami waves destroyed the delicate water table in seaside villages upsetting the seawater-fresh water interface. Most of the wells seem to have been affected except a few located at a considerable distance from the sea. The restoration process is likely to take a long time. Steps are being taken by the government to pump out the saline water from wells to allow fresh water to ooze out from the ground. While this method works in some wells, those with high salinity content have to be closed down Food shortage and starvation Food shortage in many of these remote villages has aggravated the situation further. Though several relief camps have already been set up by the various NGOs those relief camps are not "fully equipped" and enough relief material is yet to reach. Thus a high probability of hunger and starvation of the survivors remain a reality which is to be addressed. Deteriorating law and order situation/Collapse of Infrastructure Taking the advantage of the chaos the law and order situation suffered considerable set back in the coastal belt. Anti- social elements, under the guise of removing the corpses from the shore, were allegedly removing jewels and other valuables from the bodies of tourists at Velankanni. Most of the telephone lines in Nagapattinam and Cuddalore were not working for the third day. Survivors staged a roadroko in protest of inadequate relief measures provided by the government authorities. The need Tens of thousands of the survivors in the coastal belt of India spent the night huddling in emergency relief camps and many more spent the night under the open sky in absence of or due to inadequate relief measures. Despite the government’s efforts to step up relief activities the measures are in many cases largely inadequate in the face of the intensity of the disaster. The after-effects of the disaster could also be as disastrous as the calamity itself in terms of claiming lives through severe epidemic attacks and other related problems if adequate measures are not taken timely. The need of the hour is to strengthen the relief works by contributing to the process by all possible means. A few NGOs and social organisations have started taking active roles in this regard. The Organisation & the Proposal East Coast Fish workers Union, a well known fishermen and fishworkers union (ECFWU) and Institute for Motivating Self Employment (IMSE), a reputed social organisation, have taken (decided to take) active initiatives to strengthen the relief works to help the Tsumani victims in Tamilnadu. East Coast Fish workers Union is a union of the small and marginal fishermen and fish-workers in the eastern coast of India. ECFWU is working among the poor fishermen communities in the eastern coast to empower them socially and economically to overcome structural exploitations and poverty. This regional fishermen’s union has several thousand members all along the eastern coast and is operating since last one decade. IMSE is a social organisation of national repute working for the empowerment of rural poor and for establishing right to food as a basic human right in the rural areas in India for more than last three decades. IMSE focuses on right based approach of development and poverty eradication strategies. Both of these organisations believe that in order to help the Tsunami victims to cope with the disaster effectively, such strategy should be adopted which has a short as well as a long-term vision. A disaster of this magnitude definitely calls for immediate relief and the same should be carried out in a war footing. But to really overcome the ill impacts of such a disaster, a long-term coping strategy should also be formulated and implemented to help the victims to rehabilitate socially and economically. Therefore these organisations propose to work on two phases, i.e immediate relief work and long-term rehabilitation work. The main needs in both of these areas as identified and as planned to be addressed by these organisations are as follows: a. immediate relief work The immediate needs are for - More relief camps are needed with adequate arrangements to accommodate the survivors in a hygienic environment to prevent large-scale epidemic - Adequate supply of food, clothes, blankets, tarpaulins and medicines are required for the victims. - It is very crucial to have access to adequate health services for the victims as the reports from the affected areas showed that either the local health services were collapsed or if existed, highly inadequate to the rising demands of the survivors - Supply of fresh drinking water is to be assured in the camps as well as in the villages which have survived the attack. - Steps to be taken by the relief workers in collaboration with the local administrators to control criminal and antisocial activities in the affected areas and to restore the normal services (electricity, water supply, telephone, transport etc.). - Measures to be taken to keep the survivors informed of any possibility of new threats and measures should also be taken to make the survivors aware of the promises/schemes (financial grants etc.) declared by the government to help them to cope with this disaster. b. Long term rehabilitation works Though the immediate relief works are very important to ensure the survival of the victims, the post disaster period would call for activities beyond immediate relief works. The picture of the disaster clearly points out that 80% of the affected people in the coastal belt of India belong to poor fishermen communities. Almost all the survivors have lost their huts and boats, that is they have lost their shelter and means of earning livelihoods. Being poor and having no or little assets, they generally are more vulnerable to this type of natural disaster. This is because they have almost no capacity to cope with the economic losses that they suffer due to the disaster. To enable the survivors to go back to normal living a detailed rehabilitation scheme is to be developed and implemented. The rehabilitation plan should incorporate the following important components: - Reconstruction of local infrastructure - Reconstruction of houses of the homeless victims - Providing victims the appropriate opportunities to earn livelihoods or in other words providing them with means of earning livelihoods (e.g. boats, nets etc.) - Helping the survivors to get the benefits of the several schemes and programmes as announced by the governments to support the victims Though it is primarily the responsibility of the state to provide the victims with such rehabilitation facilities IMSE and ECFWU believe that social organisations could also play a compatible role in this field. In particular IMSE and ECFWU propose to create space for the active involvement and participation of the survivors in efforts of rebuilding their villages and livelihoods under the mainstream rehabilitation programmes. C precautionary measures for future Finally due importance should be given on developing a community-based disaster management system in the affected areas so that large-scale damages could be avoided in case of future calamities. One aspect of this precautionary measure would be pressurising the government to take necessary steps to develop a better forecasting system in future which would save the lives of thousands of the coastal dwellers. However, the other aspect of the precautionary measure would be strengthening the economic condition of the poor coastal dwellers so that they can overcome poverty, which would decrease their vulnerabilities to such disasters in a long- run. Therefore programmes of economic empowerment should also be taken as an integral part of the plan to fight against such large-scale disaster. ECFWU and IMSE are presently looking for national and international supports in order to help the victims in a better way. Therefore these organisations request different authorities both at national and global level to help them with resources in cash and kind for the Tsunami victims of Tamilnadu. The organisations are trying to mobilise approximately Euro 200,000 for the purpose of immediate relief and any contribution to this fund would be highly appreciated. As mentioned earlier the rehabilitation activities for the displaced victims should also be highlighted, as this is going to be the principal concern in the long-run. Keeping this in mind ECFWU and IMSE are working on developing a detailed rehabilitation plan for Nagapattinam and Cuddalore districts of Tamilnadu which would also be finalised shortly. Therefore, IMSE and ECFWU urge to the international funding and relief organisations as well as to the international civil society to help them to achieve their goal in this regard. The Cheques/Bank Drafts should be sent to : Institute For Motivating Self-Employment
Savings Account No.: 1515
Name of the Bank: CANARA BANK, Sealdah Branch
Address of the Bank: 14 & 15 A.P.C. Road
Kolkata – 700009, India. The relief materials could be mailed to or delivered at IMSE- ECFWU at: 195 Jodhpur Park
Kolkata – 700 068, India