A disaster in the making

Once again we find ourselves living in the shadow of calamity. In 2004 it was the tsunami; in 2008 a devastating cyclone in Burma and horrific earthquake in China. This time many thousands of people have died but our country has been spared. Besides making every effort to help the survivors, this is an opportune time to ask ourselves how we would have fared in similar circumstances. Just how prepared are we?
The answer is not reassuring. While fate dictates the nature of the threat, we can only judge ourselves by our preparation and response. That is where the sizable investment made in creating the National Disaster Warning Centre in the wake of the tsunami and putting one of our best and most experienced minds in charge of it should have paid off. Post-tsunami strategy dictated that this Centre should always be at a high state of readiness and constantly monitoring our alert status.
Shamefully, this has not happened. Instead, the Centre has itself become a disaster area, falling victim to shifting political winds. According to prime ministerial adviser Plodprasop Suraswadi, it has been stripped of budgetary funding and left with no decision-makers or manpower. Even the buoy deployed in the Indian Ocean amid great fanfare as a key part of the early warning system no longer works, and what remains of the National Disaster Warning Centre apparently has no authority to get it fixed.
This wretched state of affairs is why the country's foremost expert on disaster preparedness, Smith Dharmasarojana, who foresaw the 2004 tsunami and was ignored and later rehabilitated, tendered his resignation as the Centre's director. He detected a waning of interest as memories of the tsunami faded and businesses and tourist facilities along the southern coast lost interest in joining a network warning system to which they might actually have to contribute money.
Beyond that, Mr Smith felt that without a proper nationwide 24/7 warning system, many provinces would suffer an unacceptably high number of human casualties from any natural disaster - unacceptable because they could be minimised or avoided altogether. He was also dispirited by the lack of government funding and negligible support which followed the decision by the Surayud Chulanont administration to downgrade the Centre and place it under the Meteorological Department. This loss of independence has jeopardised the installation of warning devices in disaster-prone areas.
Disaster planning can save countless lives but this means having a well thought-out action plan and equipment ready in place at all times. It cannot be an afterthought. A bid to sort this mess out has reached Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's in-tray and should now be put on the cabinet agenda.
The tragedies which have befallen Burma and China have begun to serve as a catalyst to get our emergency preparedness operations back on track. Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin has summoned more than 3,000 owners of high-rise buildings to a meeting on measures to prepare for earthquakes. Inspections will follow, although few of Bangkok's buildings were constructed to withstand the intensity of the Sichuan quake.
We have a national trait of rising quickly to the occasion when disaster strikes. Not for us the malign neglect that characterised Burma's response to Cyclone Nargis. Clearly, though, our rescue services need all the help they can get and that means as much advance warning as possible. We cannot ditch the warning centre as an economy measure or because of squabbles over political turf. Too many lives are at stake.