For me, the words that summed up the sheer magnitude of the tsunami disaster were uttered by a TV reporter as she walked amongst the devastation.

With the number of deaths likely to top 100,000 and buildings flattened as if they were cardboard boxes, the reporter's conclusion that "nature has swept man aside" was chillingly accurate.

I think there are two lasting lessons that this terrible chapter in world history can teach us.

The first is confirmation once again that the most awesome power on the earth is nature itself. We take it for granted at our peril. The second is confirmation of the old adage that prevention is better than cure.

Regular readers will know that, in my opinion, Britain devotes far too much of its national income and resources to reactive rather than proactive measures.

Billions of pounds of the health service budget go towards repairing the damage of smoking, alcohol abuse and fatty foods, while a comparative pittance is used on diverting people from such excesses.

Many police forces spend their time constantly on the back foot, reacting to emergency calls rather than intervening to prevent crimes happening.

The scale, of course, is far greater but it seems that the world makes the same mistake when it comes to combating the forces of nature.

This time last year the world was mourning the death of 50,000 people following an earthquake centred on the ancient Iranian town of Bam.

The call went up then for action to be taken to implement a natural disaster early warning system.

It's not as if such natural disasters are anything new and, as far as earthquakes are concerned, we can pinpoint quite accurately areas where they could occur.

Indeed, I understand there is already a monitoring station at Hawaii that covers part of the Pacific Ocean, but calls to extend this worldwide have fallen on deaf ears.

The governments of the world have already donated over £100m to the tsunami relief effort and that doesn't include the millions of pounds that will be raised in collections.

How many lives could have been saved if half or even a quarter of that amount had been gathered together and used to set up effective early detection and warning systems?

We have seen pictures of locals and holidaymakers enjoying Boxing Day on the beaches of Sri Lanka one minute and utter devastation the next. But these beaches are over 1,000 miles from the epicentre of the quake. The waves reached those shores two hours after bringing devastation to Indonesia but it seems no warning had been issued. Trains were still using coastal routes and offices continued to work as normal, oblivious until the last minute to the impending danger.

Precisely 10,252 mobile phones were operating on Sri Lanka using the international roaming system prior to the tidal wave reaching the island.

In the aftermath, rescuers sent a message to every phone and nearly a quarter responded. This led to many being saved and also gave the authorities a crucial snapshot as to where resources should be focused.

It's just a shame no-one thought to use this method to give advance warning of the approaching danger. Who knows how many might have survived?

Man cannot prevent another tsunami but, hopefully, when the next one strikes we will do more to warn those in peril.

Published: 31/12/2004