At the end of June, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced that the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System was “up and running”. Yet on 17 July, a tsunami in Indonesia killed more than 550 people. These events demonstrate a continuing disconnect between the rhetoric of international organizations and the reality on the ground.

In contrast to the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed almost 300,000 people in December 2004, Indonesian authorities this time received a warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. But the government did nothing with the information, fearing, according to Kusmayanto Kadiman, Indonesia's science minister, that raising a false alarm would cause unnecessary panic.

Too much emphasis has been put on the expansion of the high-tech early warning system, and not enough on improving local preparedness.

Indonesia's response to the latest disaster reflects the fact that, in the rush for action that followed the 2004 tsunami, too much emphasis has been put on the expansion of the high-tech early warning system, and not enough on improving local preparedness.

This tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Java in the afternoon, when beaches were crowded with tourists — about 40 minutes after the warning was issued. That left plenty of opportunity for evacuation, if there had been sirens, for example, or if muezzins in the local mosques were ready to warn people, or if the population knew better how to recognize the ground or sea movements that presage a tsunami.

The problem is by no means confined to Indonesia. Earthquakes as far apart as Tonga and Greece earlier this year might each have generated tsunamis, but in neither case were warnings issued to the public. In Tonga the authorities blamed an ill-functioning fax machine.

The managing board of the Indian Ocean warning system, which meets next week in Bali, must continue to implement its still-incomplete system — but must also concentrate on ensuring that countries in the region get the right advice on how to make use of such warnings.

When the Java tsunami struck, it took the Pacific Ocean warning system only a few minutes to respond with a warning. That time could be reduced marginally if there were more seismic stations, but what really matters now is improving national emergency management in countries such as Indonesia. UNESCO must press governments to implement better disaster planning, and, wherever possible, it should get more actively involved in tackling inadequacies itself.

If more local scientists were trained in tsunami modelling and forecasting they could advise local communities on simple actions to protect residents from tsunami-generating earthquakes. Some 60 scientists from 18 Indian Ocean nations have, for example, attended courses in Hawaii on how to produce inundation maps for warning guidance. It is through initiatives like that — ones that build local expertise from the ground up — that the death toll from future tsunamis may be minimized.