Most of the tsunami affected coastal communities relied heavily on fisheries and agricultural activities for their incomes and livelihoods. The sudden loss or damage of their production assets, such as fishing boats and fishing gears as well as damage to their crops and agricultural land, resulted in severe economic losses to the hundreds of thousands of already poor coastal population.
To minimize the adverse impact of a disaster of this nature, the Government needs to join forces with the international community and civil society to provide emergency assistance to those affected and act as quickly as possible to reinstate income generating activities and to reconstruct their lives, livelihoods and community.
The initial emergency and short-term interventions for providing direct support to those who lost (or sustained damage to) their production should focus on the restoration of livelihoods of fisher folk and farmers through the provision of production assets and means of income generation such as fishing gears, seeds, fertilizers, etc.
While pursuing the above actions, it would be important to consider the following principles:
participatory and community centred approach (including the identification of needs and selection of beneficiaries);
support to the local economy including the procurement of inputs from local sources and creation of employment opportunities;
equitable distribution of benefits to end stakeholders and avoidance of social conflict or tension among beneficiaries;
pro-poor and gender-sensitive approach with a focus on the most vulnerable groups;
careful selection of appropriate interventions, technologies and inputs based on sustainable and environmentally sound development principles;
creation of opportunities for people and communities to build economically sustainable and market-led livelihoods;
ensure transparency and promote Government (GO) and civil society / NGO co-operation and partnership.
From the mission surveys in many severely affected villages, the common urgent needs of small-scale fisher folk include boat and engine repair and/or replacement, and fishing gear replacement. It was observed that there has been a very high demand for wood, which is mainly used to reconstruct houses and various fishery related facilities. If there is a shortage of wood for these activities, the fisher folk will probably use wood illegally cut from the forest. Therefore, to avoid forest destruction, the provision of wood should be a priority for any emergency fishery assistance programme. Fisher folk also need to earn their living from alternative sources of income as it will probably take 3-12 months for lost boats and engines to be replaced. Thus, opportunities for temporary employment should be given to these victims immediately. Owners of large boats who are entitled to receive very little compensation from the government or other donors, need soft loans/credit with a reasonable grace period to enable them to repair or replace their boats, fishing gears and for fishing operations.
The owners of the damaged fishing jetties/piers and fishery related businesses have a similar need. There is also a fish marketing crisis caused by the common fear of consuming marine fish that, it is assumed, have fed off dead bodies (perhaps even family members) lost at sea. This situation needs to be addressed urgently.
The Department of Fisheries (DOF) has identified the following priority areas for emergency and short-term interventions:
Fishing equipment and gear (boats, engines, engine parts, nets, traps etc) replacement and repair
Fishing boat replacement and repair / shipyard building
Communication equipment and system for fishing operation both for small-and large-scale fishers
Rebuilding and repair of fish landing areas and piers
Minor equipment and facilities for fish handling such as buckets, insulated boxes, cold storage at fishing peers
Major “non-fishing” items such as houses
Access to flexible forms of or low interest micro finance / credit, particularly for large-scale fishers, shrimp hatchery operators, fish landing operators, fish handling operators.
The common needs in the major affected areas are:
The repair and replacement of fish and shellfish cages;
fish and shellfish seeds;
the repair of shrimp ponds and hatcheries;
the repair and replacement of equipment used in shrimp farms and hatcheries;
low interest loans or credit facilities for aquaculture operations (i.e. feed, chemicals, fuel, labour, etc.); and
income for poor farmers so that they and their families can survive until they can harvest their crops. This may take six to ten months.
With regard to the specific needs of the coastal aquaculture subsector:
Fish traps should be urgently provided to the fish farmers who also own small fishing boats, so that they can capture those young and adult fish that escaped from the damaged cages during the tsunami episode for further culture or fattening in new cages. This is perhaps the quickest way for fish cage farmers to recover from this disaster. Moreover, the fish seed suppliers cannot fulfil all the demands for fish seeds and thus they may increase their prices making it difficult for many small fish farmers to purchase them.
Shellfish farmers should be supplied with mussel and oyster seeds or spats collected from the Gulf of Thailand, and the cockle spats from the south, as they prefer these.
Shrimp pond and hatchery operators who receive very little compensation from the government and the various donor agencies should be given long term credit and low interest rates to enable them to renovate their facilities and meet their high operating costs.
Sea sludge and sand that is blocking the waterways used for aquaculture activities and navigation should be removed. The shallower rivers and canals may also cause pollution at the bottom of cages when fishes are fed with fresh feed and should be dredged to avoid this.
Advice on the treatment of fish diseases should be given urgently as many groupers that survived the tsunami have skin diseases.
In the short term, actions in crop and forage production must focus on procuring inputs and/or information needed to ensure the timely start of the planting season for both restoring food production activities and forage/feed production for livestock. All efforts must be made to deliver seeds/planting materials and other inputs in a timely manner taking into account local needs in agriculture areas including those affected by salinity.
Discussions with DOAE officials and farmers concluded with the following immediate needs:
Seeds, planting materials, soil amendments (gypsum) and organic and mineral fertilizers should be provided to enable farmers to resume crop production as early as possible.
Damage to agricultural lands and standing crops should be identified and assessed and interventions should be implemented as soon as possible to restore agricultural production capability. Measures should be taken to reclaim salt affected soils, such as application of gypsum. The application of organic fertilizers is also recommended - the rates of application of soil amendments and fertilizer to be determined in consultation with the DOAE and Land Development Department (LDD) officers.
In addition, the following short-term interventions should be explored:
Intensification of agriculture on most production lands, adjacent to the damaged areas
Rehabilitation of agricultural lands with little damage through re-levelling and where salts will be naturally flushed from topsoil by the seasonal monsoon rains or easily leached (sandy soils, functioning and substantial water supply and energy)
Replacement/repair of damaged farm irrigation systems. Open wells used for potable and irrigation supply may need to be pumped out and disinfected. Repair of damaged tail ends and drainage in large irrigation schemes
Reclamation of coastal lagoons and deltas that can be easily repaired through clearing of blocked drainage channels
Integrated Strategy of water management oriented towards restoration of affected agro-aqua-ecosystems. The low part of the watershed needs additional water allocation and improved management to clean up agricultural lands and coastal groundwater and surface aqua-systems.
In consultation with DOAE Provincial Officers in Ranong and Phang-Nga provinces, the following new interventions were proposed as some of the income generating activities:
Vegetable growing in net houses. The purpose of this technique is to support affected groups of farmers in Ranong province to produce chemical-free vegetables through the use of organic fertilizers for the local market as an additional and alternative source of income and for their own consumption.
Hydroponic vegetable growing. The purpose of this technique is to support affected groups of farmers in Krabi province to produce vegetables where the soil was heavily affected with salt water such as in Ko Lanta district of Krabi province. Training of farmers and availability of appropriate tools, materials and facilities (Annex 9) are an important prerequisite for successful implementation of this intervention. The curriculum on the training is presented in Annex 10. Krabi Extension and Agriculture Development Centre, DOAE, could carry out such training.
It is important that these interventions be implemented using a participatory approach and farmers should organize themselves and form a group at their own initiative. Thus, the willingness of farmers to undertake such measures needs to be determined, prior to further action.
With regard to the livestock sector, on the basis of discussions with DLD officers and farmers, as well as field observations made in the affected areas, emergency assistance is required to meet the needs for concentrate and hay, mineral blocks for feeding cattle, buffaloes, sheep, and goats. DLD suggested that veterinary drugs are not an immediate requirement as they are being provided by the Department.
The damage to the mangrove forest /environment as reported by the Office of Mangrove Conservation, Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, covers about 1 910 rai or about 306 ha.
It is reported that mangrove and other coastal forests had played an essential role in protecting the communities behind them from the surge of tsunamis. The damage to the mangrove areas of the all six provinces was assessed to be minor. However, other types of forests, especially sandy beach forests and peat swamp forests, seem to be more severely affected. Serious sand erosion caused many trees to be uprooted and their roots exposed. In addition, some freshwater plant species appeared to have been affected in their habitats by the tsunami. As these negative impacts have not yet been assessed, it is urgently required to conduct a series of scientific studies to enhance the ecosystem rehabilitation efforts. The study should include:
physical damage to those forests by forest type, species composition, location, shape and size of stand, tree height and density, etc.;
ecological damage and sensitivity (by forest type, species, etc.) and long-term effects on biodiversity;
socio-economic damage to tree farm plantation, such as coconut, rubber trees, cashew nut, etc.; and
the effectiveness of coastal woody vegetation to mitigate damage to local communities. Findings will be used for better planning of rehabilitation strategies, ecosystem management, and disaster prevention for the local communities.
To identify the assessment areas, remote sensing (RS) and GIS technologies should be fully utilized in combination with field observations.
