MIT LogoweLong Term Recovery and Environmental Remediation
Organization- The First step:

In any disastrous occurrence, the first stage of solving the problem is to organize and strategize.  With this in mind, the first goal after a tsunami hits is to form an agency that would oversee all tsunami relief efforts and ensure that each task is being accomplished efficiently and effectively.  With all relief efforts carried out through this one agency, resources could be easily managed, multiple organizations would not undermine one another's efforts, and people would know where to go to address their needs and/or concerns regarding the disaster.  It would be the responsibility of the head-of-state to appoint members to such a group.  As a guide, below is an outline for an ideal group that would `be sufficiently staffed to tackle most foreseen challenges related to long-term tsunami relief and reconstruction.

 -A government official who is familiar with the government policies and is significantly high ranked would be a representative for the government when decisions are to be made, and would also be beneficial, as this person should be capable of carrying out important decisions without extensive bureaucracy.  Someone that fits this description is the vice president of the country.

-Scientists would be necesssary to provide a technical perspective on the impacts that certain decisions would have on the environment.  Scientists from numerous fields could be employed, but most important in this situation would be ecologists and biologists, as the ecosystem would have received extensive damage from the disaster.

-Engineers are key leaders in the reconstruction process.  Inclusion of engineers on this team would allow plans made by the agency to be reviewed for feasibility and sensibility.  Engineers specifically important in this case would be civil engineers, electrical engineers, and environmental engineers.

-Management specialists would deal with the logistics involved in carrying out the plan.  So many people are involved in reconstruction, and so much money is to be managed.  These, among other problems, would be handled by management specialists, to ensure that the plans made and approved by the scientists, politicians, and engineers actually get carried out.

Under this agency would also be a large number of recruited public workers to actually carry out the reconstruction efforts.  These workers would be people who are already under government employ, people who are without jobs (due to the tsunami), and any volunteers (both from inside and outside the country).The agency would be in charge of assembling this team of workers, assigning jobs to each, briefing them on the procedures to be taken, and paying any non-volunteer workers.  The less funding is available to pay workers, the fewer people will be employed.  Although it would be ideal to have a large number of workers to expedite the recovery efforts, it is not necessary to have any specific number of people.  A lower number of people simply equates to a longer time to reconstruct (assuming the management team is competent).

The first task of this agency would be to lead an assessment of damage.  The purpose of this damage assessment would be to gage the extent of the damage and set priorities accordingly.  This assessment should include the damages incurred environmentally, the conditions of power, transportation, and water in various areas, as well as the extent of damage to buildings.  While priorities would be set on a case-by-case basis, the following is an outline of what we feel should be prioritized.  Actual priorities should vary based on the assessment made by the agency.

Included in this damage assessment is the decision of whether an area should be reconstructed or not.  If a particular area faces an alarming rate of disaster occurrences, reconstruction may not be advisable in that area.  If this is the case, the agency should keep the following questions in mind: