<B>By Pauline Etienne</B>

Most people didn?t sleep much last Monday night. How many times have Mauritius seen that it was being ?advertised? on international TV channels, such as BBC, SkyNews or LCI? Practically never? So, when the island is named as the next target of a potential tsunami ? similar to the one we all witnessed last 26th December ? there are indeed reasons to panic.

?Each time I heard some expert or some presenter mentioning Mauritius, I had shivers,? admitted one television viewer. The images of the disastrous consequences linked to the tsunami of last December are still in everybody?s mind. So, when we heard about the possibility of a tsunami coming to our shores, I suppose there were reasons to panic. Fortunately, everything turned out fine.

However, this statement should not make us believe that we are safe from any catastrophe of the kind. We should not rest on our laurels by telling ourselves that this happens only to others. It is not a matter of making a non-tragic situation become a tragic one but rather a matter of being conscious about what could happen.

Whether this kind of panic was justified or not is absolutely not my point. What sounds crucial to realise is that Nature is capricious and we should not downplay the consequences such catastrophes could have on us. Humans are completely powerless against such events. The only thing we could do would be to prevent too dramatic consequences in case of natural catastrophes such as if the tsunami reaches our coasts. We must be prepared? Just in case!

This doesn?t mean that the worst is to come and that a tsunami will soon destroy our small island. This only means that we should give ourselves the means to fight such events and preserve everything we can.

As soon as international television gave the alert for Mauritius, many hotels reacted quickly and moved their tourists far from the coastal areas. Some tourists who were not moved took taxis and went to the municipality of Quatre-Bornes to be safe. Some people from Black-River climbed the mountain when they heard about the danger. Maybe all this was exaggerated. But the fact is that many were frightened but didn?t really know what to do in such circumstances.

?Prevention is better than cure!? This could apply perfectly to our context. Although nothing finally happened, one thing is sure: we now know there is potential danger. If there were only 0.001% risk of getting a tsunami, the risk is still there. And nobody should play up with such problems. If something can be done ? just in case ? why not give us the means to do so?

When there is a cyclone approaching Mauritius, strict rules are applied to ensure that people?s lives are not endangered. Parameters have been established to prevent people from going out.

In the tsunami case, the parameters cannot, of course, be the same. However, the population should be told what they should do exactly in such cases. They should be told where to go and what road to take to go where. Roads ? unused but existing ? should even be reopened in such emergency cases to prevent traffic jams? And, even more, panicked people!