Strengthening tsunami preparedness in the Phl

Over the last 20 years, the world has seen an unprecedented rise of direct economic and human losses from climate-related and geophysical disasters. From 1997 to 2018, 1.3 million people lost their lives and 4.4 billion people were injured, displaced and affected by these calamities. That is around 60% of the total population of the whole world today, whose lives have been lost and changed in the last two decades because of force majeure aka force of nature.

Of the total lives lost, 56% was caused by earthquakes and tsunamis.

Though rare, tsunamis are among the most devastating natural disasters, leaving heavy consequences at their wake. They are often difficult to detect in advance, since waves can travel quickly on the water surface at speeds up to 800 km per hour – that’s as fast as the cruising speed of a commercial airplane! As soon as they reach land, the deadly waves will slow to between 16 to 32 km per hour, but they can surge vertically to anywhere between 3 to 30 meters. Perhaps Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world on record, can outrun a terrifying wall of raging water for the first 100 meters, but most ordinary people cannot.

Tsunamis strike quickly with very little warning– swift but fatal. In March 2011, less than an hour after a magnitude 9 earthquake hit northeastern Japan, a devastating tsunami swept through its coastline, claiming almost 16,000 lives. In some countries, it only takes 15 to 30 minutes for a tsunami to strike after an earthquake. In between those few minutes, every single action matters. A life can hinge on a second’s decision or hesitation.

Today marks World Tsunami Awareness Day across the world. A day that should set an acute reminder to us all of the old adage: “Preparation saves lives.” For people who have never been in the midst of an emergency situation, evacuation drills may just be another tedious activity organized to meet some arbitrary building protocol. But for many who may not be as advantaged, these drills can carve out the only way to survival.

Two years ago, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the support of the government Japan, initiated a project called “Partnerships for Strengthening School Preparedness for Tsunamis in the Asia Pacific Region,” which aims to mitigate the impact of tsunamis by strengthening school preparedness in 18 countries by conducting evacuation drills.

The project set to prepare thousands of teachers and school children who live in coastal areas all over Asia and the Pacific Islands in the event of a tsunami, and empower them with knowledge of safety procedures, and evacuation routes.

With Japan being one of the countries that has suffered most at the hands of tsunamis in the past years, it is commendable that they invest beyond their national borders and share their experience and the expertise they have honed through their recovery efforts to countries that will greatly benefit to being tsunami-prepared.

Since 2017, we have been working with local government units (LGUs) and the Department of Education in conducting school-based simultaneous tsunami drills for 20,000 students and teachers in 20 schools in Eastern Visayas, and over 40,000 students and teachers in 103 schools in Eastern Samar. Two regions which have suffered tremendously due to natural calamities in recent years.

Today we set out to do more than just commemorate World Tsunami Awareness Day. UNDP in the Philippines, in partnership with the local Department of Education and the LGU, is conducting tsunami evacuation drills across 54 schools in 8 municipalities in Siargao Island – a top tourist destination and an island often hit by earthquakes.

Aside from spreading awareness, one of the other reasons we are doing the drills is to mine valuable insights on the evacuation plans of provincial schools. The drills can provide critical information which can determine blind spots in the local contingency plans and improve the capacities of the LGUs in addressing them. Actual commencement of drills sometimes show navigation and safety issues posed by existing evacuation routes and shelters.

In our experience in the last two years, we have found that despite being school-based tsunami evacuation drills, it took the collaboration of all stakeholders – school principals, teachers, disaster risk reduction specialists and community leaders – for the activity to succeed. With their children being the protagonists of the evacuation exercise, the parents and the elderly in the community were more interested in becoming part of the drills as well.

We have a long way to go in our goal to  help vulnerable regions in the Philippines in disaster preparedness and risk mitigation. The biggest challenge for us and for anybody dealing with tsunamis is to guarantee safety for the most vulnerable, by drawing on global expertise in facilitating the convergence of all stakeholders in addressing vulnerabilities and risks faced by communities living in the fringes. We are working to mitigate as much as possible such hazards.

All in the hope that one day, everyone in the most remote communities in the Philippines, including those who can’t run or kids, will know what to do within the 30-minute window they have at the first sound of the warning sirens.

(Enrico Gaveglia is Deputy Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme in the Philippines)