Long-Term Effects of a Widespread Disaster

Long-Term Effects of Adverse Nature

Long-term Implications of 2004 Indian Ocean Disasters

Long-term effects of the 2004 Indian Ocean Disaster

2004 Indian Ocean Disasters

Indian Ocean is the third vastest water body in the world wide, casing an average of 68.556 million km2. It is the mass of water body around Africa, Asia, the Southern Ocean and Australia. It has four main accessible waterways, the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (along Djibouti and Yemen), the Strait of Hormuz (along Iran and Oman), and the Strait of Malacca (Indonesia and Malaysia) among other minor ones. The ocean has been attributed to many economical advantages ranging from providing a means of transportation, food, recreation and for the extraction of valuable mineral resources. However, the ocean has major confluences with terrific and adverse water disasters such as disasters, tsunamis, aftershocks, earthquakes among others.

2004 Disaster

In 2004, the Indian registered the worst disasters ever recorded in history. An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 caused an unexpected and devastating tsunami, having inauspicious effects in over 18 countries sharing the ocean's coastline. This was a heated mega-thrust that had its epicenter in the deep ocean trenches. An average populous of 250 thousand people killed and 1.7 million becoming homeless. These implications came unaware of the nations affected due to lack of a well organized warning system and communication networks and the presence of residential activities near the location of action of tectonic plate movement. This disaster brought about international empathy as a resultant aftermath, which was majorly triggered by residents who uploaded the grotesque imagers to the world (Daly et al., pg 7). The calamity brought about long-term implications to the people and to their respective economies.

Long-term Implications

The tragedy has had unending and incomprehensible suffering to the families that lost their loved ones in the unexpected calamity. Each country sharing the ocean's coastline had a significant amount out of the death toll and the missing persons. This humanitarian loss was also felt by the countries by losing competent members of their economy. Many citizens of the mentioned countries are also suffering from injuries that were inflicted to them directly or indirectly.

Another effect implicated to-date from the disaster is exposure to environmental threats to the coastlines of the countries bordering the ocean. It is estimated that several million dollars are being utilized to reduce the vulnerability of environment-related hazards in accordance to the disaster aftermaths. Physical cliffs fall out of the mainland causing other mild tremors on the resultant ground. Coral reefs on the beaches and on the shallow floor of the ocean are shattered posing a threat to the planktons that use them as sources of shelter and food. Oil spillage has also had continued effects in the fauna and flora undersea. The oil well drilled to the sea floor cause leakages from which many environmental bodies have been trying to deal with but with no avail. Some beaches along the Indian Ocean coastlines also suffer flooding and beach erosions (Ramalanjaona, 2011, pg 2).

The economies of Japan, Sri Lanka, India, and Malaysia among others are still suffering economy loss due to derailment of some industries and tourism that are dependent of the coast. Japan, that collects a lot of revenue from fishing suffered and still suffers the recession. Fish in the Japanese territorial waters has exceedingly translocated to different ecological niches away from Japan, making it now expensive to look for fish in other territorial waters. Countries like Madagascar, Kenya, and Tanzania among others suffered a great loss by losing a bigger population of tourists. Infrastructure, constructions and other vital economic developments have been affected. These economies are still struggling to upraise their standards, improve disaster resilience and to achieve their 2030 millennium economic visions.

Poverty levels in the nations along the Indian Ocean have steadily increased. A lot of property, houses, public amenities, income, and wages is a continuing implication of the adverse effects of the 2004 Indian Ocean disasters. A lot of employment, both self and company, has been lost making it hard for the affected to find new sources of income. A lot of coastal slums have also sprung up as a result of the harsh calamity (Powers, 2004, pg 23).