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Asian Tsunami: Emergency Relief

My Lords, the Asian tsunami on 26 December was a terrible tragedy. As other noble Lords have reminded us, there are huge effects on the economies, as well as the life and limb. The economies of all countries of the world were affected, as the insurance industry is well aware—and, indeed, that industry can also help. I should like to speak about what could be done further by using science and engineering to reduce the impact of such events and to help the countries to ensure that, if such events recur, they will be better protected. I declare an interest as a member of the UK Advisory Committee for Natural Disaster Reduction. I am also chair of an NGO called ACOPS. As director of the Institute of Mathematics at University College and the Institution of Civil Engineers, we had a meeting with experts from Sri Lanka, Europe and the USA. I have placed a report of that in the Library for those of you who like studying waves and other complex problems. As the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, has reminded us, this natural disaster had much in common with other natural disasters, in that many of the deaths were preventable and happened in greater numbers in the least developed countries. More developed countries have demonstrated time and again that through the use of science and technology, planning and resources, many of the effects of natural disasters can be mitigated. Progress is being made through international collaboration, through the United Nations system, at which I was pleased to represent the UK with the World   Meteorological Organisation. Through such collaboration, many developing countries have also learned the lessons that technology, planning and emergency response can be applied, often at modest cost. For example, a centre of coastal environment set up in Kenya, partly through the help of our NGO in the UK, provided warnings in that country. When the tsunami reached Kenya, which was about six hours later than it reached Sri Lanka, warnings had been given and there was some reduction in the amount of damage. It is important to recall that each type of natural disaster has its own features, but there are broad types of response. Whereas in the UK we have different types of response for every type of disaster, in Japan, for example, there is one centre where all the information and decisions are taken. India also has more of a unified response. Nevertheless, the UK with its expertise and its governmental departments can be involved; I refer not only to DfID, but to many specialised departments that can provide help. The noble Lord, Lord Naseby, made some further suggestions. The noble Lord also reminded us that many other countries have been very effective at every level, and   the United Nations system has been helpful in co-ordinating that. However, it is important to recognise that current methods need to be improved and that there are new kinds of technology that we need to make use of—for example, the satellites and computer systems that are widely available around the world, which need to be applied to provide detailed warnings. In Japan, for example, one has detailed models for how a tsunami will affect every single bay and port area. Such models are very important for local responses. At this point, it is important to realise that the UK Government, following the disaster, set up their own committee to deal with the reduction of natural disasters. That committee reported last week—as always, to the press and not to Parliament; that is a bit of a New Labour thing, is it not? But its conclusions were important. One of them was that the UK could contribute, but that the UN system is very important to co-ordinate. One of the important points of the special meeting that we had was to recognise that the cause of tsunamis comes about from earth movement. It is not only the earth movement in itself that causes tsunamis, but it triggers slides—large shifts of sediment—down the sloping sea bottom, which often causes a depression of the sea surface, followed by an elevation. A speaker from Sri Lanka blamed Hollywood for the widespread death and destruction, because Hollywood has always presented a tsunami as a huge wave. The important point about that particular event was that there was a depression—so everybody went down to the beach to have a look and then, following the depression, the huge wave came. So perhaps we can blame Hollywood a little. But that only shows that it is extremely important to explain to people what can happen. Indeed, the communities that were saved there were saved by people who had experienced tsunamis in other parts of the Pacific basin. The other important point, which I have already mentioned, is that the combination of satellites, computers and telecommunications now provide a method for effective warnings. They have been very effective for tropical cyclones around the world, and developing countries make use of them just as much as developed countries. They have been used for tsunamis in the pacific. The new system that needs to be developed is a tsunami system for the Indian Ocean. That would be a great step forward. But as I saw for myself while visiting India in March, many organisations there are requesting collaboration and assistance from the UK and Europe to make best use of the satellite systems that are available. The other very important point is the question of buildings. Those which were put up of a commercial type, such as hotels built to modern standards, survived the tsunami; other buildings did not. The Institution of Civil Engineers made a plea to its own members, and got to work within a day or two in some of the ports in the Indian Ocean area—but we need to provide that kind of training and expertise. Training is the most important way in which the science and technology community can contribute, but it needs some government help for that.