Ten years on, tsunami warning systems still lacking

With Thailand's two tsunami warning buoys out of service and its disaster warning towers insufficient, natural disaster experts say people living in coastal areas are still at risk from a tsunami like the one that hit ten years ago today.

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Thailand's two tsunami warning buoys launched in 2010 look impressive, but the four-year contract to maintain them has expired and they no longer are sending information on ocean waves. KOSOL NAKACHOL

Locals left at risk by out-of-action buoys

Apinya Wipatayotin

Two buoys used to transmit tsunami warning data must be urgently replaced to protect people in the face of another giant wave, according to natural disaster experts.

The buoys, which are currently out of service, are located in Thai parts of the Andaman sea. They are an essential part of the tsunami warning system, should an earthquake occur on the Sakraekrang fault line.

Smith Thammasaroj, former chairman of the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC), said giant waves would hit Thailand in less than 30 minutes if another mega-earthquake like the one in 2004 was caused by the fault line.

This photo taken on 26 December, 2004 shows the arrival of the second wave which engulfs Phuket's Chedi resort restaurant and its surrounding gardens. AFP PHOTO

The Sakraekrang fault line stretches from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean to southern Thailand and up to Myanmar.

The two warning buoys are the only ones deployed in Thailand's exclusive economic zone in the Andaman sea, but they are not working. This leaves the country exposed, since its only other buoy — which was donated by the US — is in the Indian Ocean. The US device cannot detect tsunami waves that occur on the Sakraekrang fault line.

"I don't understand why it is not a priority for the agency concerned to fix or replace them with new ones. We can't avoid another tragedy if we don't have the buoys to warn us in advance," Mr Smith said, referring to his former employer.

Cars damaged by the 2004 tsunami left stranded at Patong beach, Phuket. SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL

He said the NDWC should also check whether all its disaster warning towers still function, since he has received complaints some of them no longer work.

The NDWC deployed the two Italian-made buoys into the sea several years ago. They fed information to the centre under a four-year contract.

After the contract expired, no one came up with a budget to renew it, due to the political turmoil.

The centre plans to replace them with two US-made buoys, using 76 million baht in the 2016 financial year.

Asked about the buoys, a NDWC source said the navy's water measuring station at Koh Miang in Phangnga province can be used to detect giant waves for the time being.

However, the station is close to the mainland, which raises questions over whether the station could make a timely enough warning.

Seree Suppratid, director of the National Disaster Research Centre at Rangsit University, said many steps are needed to improve national disaster warnings.

He said warnings are too slow, and should be brought up to the international standard of not more than 20 minutes after a big quake.

Indonesia and Japan can give tsunami warnings within five minutes of a big quake.

He said the NDWC should aim to not only receive information from international agencies, but become an information provider as well, which would enhance its skills in disaster warning management.

"If we are to reach that level, the government urgently needs to fix the two buoys which are out of order," Mr Seree said.

Maitree Jongkraichak, a leader from Ban Nam Khem community, which was devastated in the 2004 tsunami, said the number of disaster warning towers set up to send evacuation orders to locals is insufficient.

As a result, people in some areas would not be warned if a disaster were about to strike, he said.

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