“Preparing for Another Tsunami”

Aceh sits in a highly unstable geological world making the possibility of another tsunami some time very likely though when is impossible to predict. This chapter explores how the people can be ready and can take advance action to build up ways of handling the destructive force of a tsunami if and when another invades. Building locations now need to be controlled to avoid communities being in locations of greatest risk. An effective warning system must be in place and trusted whilst in early development of such a system, there remains inter-agency conflict and confusion. Even aid donors need to be coordinated for, as demonstrated, they too often follow their own plan rather than listen and respond to what the people need, or get into conflict with other donors. As the chapter demonstrates, in traditional societies across Aceh, past trauma from a tsunami had evolved into a legend that actually saved the lives of the people of Simeleu Island, the first landfall of the Tsunami of 2004. One approach Stephen subsequently initiated was to build a contest for Acehnese children to create an attractive myth which if widely shared similarly carries a warning within play and memory into the future.