The international communications journal Media Development carries in its latest issue an article on community-based disaster education and preparedness written by TVE Asia Pacific’s Director, Nalaka Gunawardene.

The article, titled ‘Bridging the long last mile in Sri Lanka: Building grassroots capacity for disaster warning and preparedness in Sri Lanka’, was timed for the second anniversary of the Asian Tsunami, which devastated South and Southeast Asia in December 2004.

Published in the 2006/4 issue of the quarterly journal, it reflects on the communications lessons of the mega-disaster in the Sri Lankan context. It also introduces the ‘Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination Project’ in Sri Lanka, which seeks to build grassroots level disaster preparedness and disaster resilience through education and communication.

TVE Asia Pacific is a lead partner in this two year action research project. Other lead partners are Sri Lanka’s largest development organisation Sarvodaya, regional ICT research group LIRNEasia, and Sri Lanka’s largest telecommunications company, Dialog Telekom. The project is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.

The article takes off from the complete failure to issue any public warning of the Asian Tsunami, in spite of the timely information reaching governmental and military authorities. It quotes Sir Arthur C Clarke, author and long time resident of Sri Lanka, as saying: “The Asian tsunami’s death toll could have been drastically reduced if the warning – already known to scientists -- was disseminated quickly and effectively to millions of coastal dwellers on the Indian Ocean rim. It is appalling that our sophisticated global communications systems simply failed us that fateful day.”

It then traces the Indian Ocean tsunami early warning system the United Nations and governments of the region embarked upon building, which was commissioned in mid 2006.

“Even the most sophisticated early warning system will be rendered ineffective without adequate mechanisms to disseminate warnings in a timely, credible manner.” - TVE Asia Pacific Director Nalaka Gunawardene, in his article published in Media Development 2006/4 issue

But this system’s major gaps were revealed within days, when a tsunami struck the Indonesianisland of Java on 17 July 2006, killing close to 600 people and displacing thousands. There was a 30 minute warning of the oncoming tsunami, but the Indonesian officials ‘lacked a proper system to get the warning across to areas at risk in their vast, archipelagic nation’, the article notes.

Nalaka Gunawardene emphasizes: “The Java tsunami further underlined a point we have been emphasising since the Indian Ocean tsunami: even the most sophisticated early warning system will be rendered ineffective without adequate mechanisms to disseminate warnings in a timely, credible manner.”

He poses the question: how can we travel that all important ‘last mile’?

Obsession with gadgets still seems to dominate the discussion on delivering hazard warnings. This is just what President Bill Clinton, UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, had cautioned against at the Third International Early Warning Conference in Bonn, in March 2006: “All the sophisticated technology won't matter if we don't reach real communities and people. Satellites, buoys, data networks will make us safer, but we must invest in the training, the institution building, the awareness raising on the ground.”

“All the sophisticated technology won't matter if we don't reach real communities and people. Satellites, buoys, data networks will make us safer, but we must invest in the training, the institution building, the awareness raising on the ground.” - President Bill Clinton, UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery

Precisely these elements form the cornerstone of the ‘Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination Project’ in Sri Lanka. Its combination of community training, awareness raising and the use of appropriate ICTs offers a ‘real world test’ whose outcome would be of much interest across the developing world.

The rest of the article describes the research premise, participatory processes and progress of the project, which started in January 2006 and will continue until December 2007.

This multi-partner, civil society initiative brings together four Sri Lanka-based organizations that value the role of information, communication and community mobilization in disaster preparedness and management. The project will study, experiment and understand which ICTs and community mobilization methods will work most effectively in disseminating information on hazards faced by Sri Lankan coastal communities.

The exercise is not confined to tsunamis alone; among the other hazards addressed are coastal erosion, cyclones, drought and floods.

Media Development is a quarterly journal drawing on experiences in the theory and practice of communication from all over the world. Of interest to communicators working at all levels, Media Development offers informed and critical opinions on a broad range of topics related to the main theme, publishes relevant documents, conference reports, a section on cinema, and book reviews. It articulates common concerns in the search for equality, justice and human dignity in mass and alternative communications.

Media Development is published quarterly by the World Association of Christian Communicators (WACC), which promotes communication for social change. It believes that communication is a basic human right that defines people’s common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community and challenges tyranny and oppression. WACC’s key concerns are media diversity, equal and affordable access to communication and knowledge, media and gender justice, and the relationship between communication and power. It tackles these through advocacy, education, training, and the creation and sharing of knowledge.