Complacency the new tsunami threat

As the sun rose on Asia this day 10 years ago, news was still breaking of the catastrophic tsunami across the Indian Ocean the previous day. This newspaper described it, with unintended understatement, as an ugly reminder of the power of nature. When the full extent of it dawned the next day, we said, rightly, it was one of the worst natural disasters to strike the world in modern times. The tragedy and its aftermath was chronicled for weeks afterwards with reports of heartbreaking suffering and miraculous survival, unbearable loss and human resilience. They sparked an unprecedented outpouring of compassion, with Hong Kong alone raising more than HK$700 million for relief in the first two weeks.

When the waters of a giant tidal wave generated by a magnitude-9.3 earthquake under the Indian Ocean had receded, about 220,000 people across 14 Asian and African countries were dead or missing, including 170,000 in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

A decade on, remembrance of the victims and gratitude for international generosity to the survivors - US$7 billion in relief and reconstruction aid for Aceh alone - prompt reflection on preparedness for a similar event. Just as time heals wounds, it can take the edge off lessons learned.

Earthquakes off Indonesia in 2012 provided a trial run - without the wave - in which monitoring and warning systems and evacuation measures seemed to work smoothly. But since then reports of flaws indicate that complacency has undermined preparedness and regional cooperation. They include missing ocean buoys that detect tsunamis, insufficient alarm sirens and a lack of education about how to respond. A spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency says the archipelago has 39 tsunami sirens compared with the need for at least 1,000. Preparedness is half the battle of disaster management. The 10th anniversary should prompt governments to redouble efforts to improve coverage of the system and verification of its effective operation.