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Planning for Long-Term Recovery and Environmental Remediation

Main Parts of Reconstruction:

Our Mission:

Whenever a natural disaster of global proportions occurs, humankind reaches out in attempt to assist those who are suffering. We have historically seen, however, that such attempts to assist others is done in an unacceptably inefficient way, such that needed relief is never where and when it needs to be. Lives are lost unnecessarily, and money is wasted to fund for preventative measures after the natural disaster occurs.

Our Mission rests on the premise that if a tsunami were to occur again, particularly for the coasts of Peru and the islands of Micronesia, our plans would reduce the amount of lives lost due to poor organization and uneven allocation of relief, and would assist in the stabilizing of the country in a more efficient manner. Our goals include (but are not limited to):
          -Restoring the environment;
          -Restoring the economy and civilian employment;
          -Assuring that water systems are purified to an acceptable state;
          -Assessing the safety/useability of roads and buildings, as well as constructing new (and tsunami-resistant) roads and buildings to replace damaged ones.

It is within our understanding that first and foremost, any plan we come up with must be weighed against what has actually occurred and determined to be applicable or not, as any plan has flaws and will not be able to cover any exceptions that a tsunami might present. We hope our plan would prove to be useful if a tsunami were to unfortunately reach Peru or Micronesia.

Our Plan:

Three main points form our plans for long term recovery and environmental remediation. They are:

Central agency to oversee all relief
Salt water farming
Large involvement of government and funding

All relief governed by one body will make this recovery easier. Having a central agency to oversee all relief will make it easier to facilitate aid and form bonds between various NGO’s and the government. Cooperation within the agency will help optimize how the country will go about rebuilding. This agency will be composed of government officials, scientists, managerial experts, and the like.

The central agency will be in charge of deciding what should be rebuilt and prioritize the rebuilding process. An example would be our plan to rebuild the main road lifelines first and then secondary roads. This agency will make sure that this job is carried out efficiently and is funded properly. With buildings, the agency, which is made up of experts, will dictate how a certain building will be rebuilt. They are the experts and they can decide what is best. As you can see, having one central agency will leave no room for ambiguity and confusion. A central agency to over see all relief is integral in long term recovery.

After a tsunami is hit, fresh water becomes scarce. We can fix the drinking water problem by decontaminating wells with chlorine tablets and revising the way we purify and filter water, such as adding more disinfecting chemicals to the process and make the filtering system more complex. For agricultural purposes, a solution that we are proposing is salt water farming. The main crop being used in our proposal is salicornia, a halophyte or salt tolerant plant. It has uses for animal and human consumption that will make up for the crops lost after the tsunami. Salt water farming will be an option for those farms formed along the coast until fresh water becomes available again. Salt water farming is the option to take while we are waiting for the contaminated streams and wells to correct themselves over the course of time. This occurs though rainfall and movement of water across the land.

A third essential aspect that will make our plan for long term recovery is the large involvement of government and funding. We consider government involvement in the terms of incentive or assistance programs. For example, the workforce needed to rebuild the nation would be the citizens themselves and the government would pay for their services. This is similar to FDR’s New Deal plans to make jobs for the local citizens. This will stimulate the economy in such a way that it will be self-sustaining. By rebuilding roads and clearing debris, then it leads the progression of tourism. The government should work towards restoring confidence in tourists by installing early tsunami warning towers and implementing tsunami drills if they are not in place already. This entire system will be run by the citizens and paid through the government, assuming money is not a limiting factor.

In essence, the road to long term recovery deals with cooperation of the various NGO’s and government. An alternative to freshwater is needed while the nation is still recovering from the after effects of the tsunami. The government will be a prominent figure in stimulating the livelihood and economy. If we have these three main components, we are confident that the road to long term recovery will be feasible.

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