Three months after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, the world's eighth largest earthquake since 1900 has left at least 1,000 people dead on two islands off western Sumatra. Since the December 26th tsunami was one of the world's greatest natural disasters it was rational to expect further geological events as a result of it - and more of them are likely to happen.
On this occasion the earthquake did not create a huge tidal wave. Although an Indian Ocean warning system is not yet in place there was an impressively immediate response from the Pacific centres which monitored the tremor. Had the rapid warnings communicated by them to western Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and Thailand been in place last December many more people might have been saved. This disaster reminds us of the fearsome scale of that tragedy, the global solidarity extended to its victims, and the slow but sure progress that has been made to tackle the death and destruction.
Indonesia's western coasts have borne the brunt of the tsunami damage, since they were most exposed to it. An estimated 126,000 of its people are dead, 93,000 missing and 800,000 remain homeless. All who visit there tell of an unimaginable scale of destruction. This has now been further added to on the islands of Nias and Simeulue and in adjoining coastal communities. The Indonesian government has done its best to respond in the Banda Aceh area where it still faces a regional rebellion. It has allowed aid workers to stay beyond their original timeframe and has faced few complaints from them about the availability of access and resources for the massive reconstruction operation.
Elsewhere in the Indian Ocean region, governments and communities are struggling with the reconstruction effort, aware that it will take years to accomplish. Whereas immediate aid to the tsunami victims was initially slow to materialise, donors, agencies and governments then responded magnificently in most of the areas affected. Achieving long term reconstruction poses challenges of a different order. Actual delivery of voluntary and public aid has varied according to governmental effectiveness and commitment. There is still an indispensable role for voluntary agencies, who have mobilised impressively, buoyed by overwhelming international sympathy. This latest disaster is a reminder that we need to know more about how well this greatest aid effort has been delivered upon three months later.
In January there were worries among the international development community that the surge of solidarity for the tsunami victims would divert attention from equally deserving and pressing needs elsewhere, especially in Africa. There is evidence that this has been so, in the flow of aid from governments and in the attention devoted to the crises in Congo, Sudan and among Aids victims in southern Africa. Vigilant and continuing awareness is critically important to prevent such diversions of aid and solidarity.