A Look back to the Great Tsunami of 2004 in the Maldives
It was the year-end holidays. A time all about fun. At that time, I was just six years old and living at the capital, Male’ City. At around 9:30am, my grandmother sat me and my younger cousin down for breakfast. She then went to water her plants in her miniature garden from which she would have a good view of the surrounding neighborhood. And then, she screamed, and kept screaming. She had no idea was happening but she was able to somewhat put in words that a swelling tide of water was about flood the house and we needed to save what we could. I was still dipping a biscuit in tea, when it actually happened. Within minutes, the ground floor was fully flooded and my panicked elder family members were running around to salvaging all essentials they could.
I admit, the damage me and my family experienced was nowhere close to people deeply impacted by this crisis. Consequently. we were able to reinstate to our status prior the tsunami within a shorter period of time. Combined with this and my young age at that time, despite all news channels broadcasting video footage of tsunami and its aftermath on a stretch, I was unable to comprehend the overall impact it had on the country. This article, thus, is for anyone who is on the same boat as me. Here as a comprehensive look back to the incident which shook the country to its core and taking the lives of 82 persons (including two British tourists) with additional 24 persons reported missing.
The geographical formation of the Maldivian islands being so low and being completely surrounded by water, when the tsunami swept over the over nearly every inch of the entire nation, there was no high ground or even dry ground to run to. Although the country was not hit by destructive waves similar to the ones which struck countries like Indonesia and Thailand, the tsunami waves were rather surges of water swamping the islands. Locals compared it often to a feeling of sinking. All islands except for 9, were hit with the tsunami.
Whilst two-thirds of Male’ City was flooded, the only international airport in the country was made useable. About 10% if the islands were totally wiped out, with thirteen islands being completely evacuated. Seventy islands experienced disruptions of water supplies and electricity. Seventy-nine islands lacked safe drinking water, 26 had no electricity and 24 had no telephones and four islands lost all communications. The southern and central atolls suffered the worst damage. Severe damage was caused to houses, tourist resorts, boats and other fishing equipment, schools, health facilities, transport and communication equipment, water and sanitation, and electricity infrastructure all over the country. Farms and homestead plots and aquifers were salinized.
Twenty-one of the eighty-seven resorts in operation at time in the Maldives were closed. As it was the height of the Christmas-New Year season, over 17,000 tourists were stranded in the Maldives who were evacuated by hastily arranged charter flights.
The government had declared a state of emergency and a special task force was set up to provide aid and supplies. Nevertheless, rescue efforts were hindered by loss of communication capability with the over one thousand islands that compose the nation as well as the lack of disaster planning and the fragile economic state of the country.
It has been said that the tsunami had set back two decades of social progress and prosperity achieved. A total damaged was monetized ad USD 470 million, which account for nearly 62% of the GDP.
Nevertheless, the government jointly with other stakeholders and the people made commendable effort to provide swift relief to the affected in addition to planning and executing a reconstruction program.
Sixteen years afterwards, today, the trauma and the memories are still fresh on most people’s mind. Every 26th of December has since been marked at the ‘National Unity Day’, in the remembrance of the lives lost and in celebration of the unity and solidarity shown by the people in the face of this crisis.