Germany helps Indonesia install tsunami warning system<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
In 1992, years before developing the largest conventional
\nseismic network in Central America, Nicaragua, which was not a
\nmember of the International Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific
\nOcean, was hit by four to ten meter tsunami waves that killed 170
\nof its citizens.<\/p>\n
Wilsfried Strauch, from the Instituto Nicaraguense de Estudios
\nTerritoriales (INETER), described the country's experience in
\ninstalling a Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS) after the
\ncatastrophe. A system similar to this will soon be enjoyed by
\nIndonesia, which saw up to 300,000 of its people killed when
\ntsunami waves struck Aceh and North Sumatra provinces on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n
Nicaragua now has digital seismic equipment that can detect
\nlong-period seismic waves and that can calculate correct
\nmagnitudes of very strong earthquakes.<\/p>\n
Parameters of seismic events in Nicaragua and Central America
\nare reported within 15 minutes of their occurrence. Stronger
\nmovements are reported automatically via email and fax to about
\n70 institutions, the mass media and people in Nicaragua and
\nCentral America. The capacity to report seismic events, he said,
\nwas important for tsunami warnings.<\/p>\n
If an earthquake with a magnitude above 7.0 on the Richter
\nscale is detected near the Pacific coast of Nicaragua or Central
\nAmerica, operators there issue a tsunami warning to the Civil
\nDefense Organization in Nicaragua, Strauch said.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta on Monday, Indonesia and Germany made a joint
\ndeclaration concerning cooperation for the realization of a TEWS
\nin this region.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's State Minister for Research and Technology
\nKusmayanto Kadiman, along with Germany's Federal Minister of
\nEducation and Research Edelgard Bulmahn, signed an agreement that
\nwould assist the Indonesian government in installing TEWS
\ncomponents in tsunami-prone areas of its Indian Ocean coastlines.<\/p>\n
The Sunda Shelf in Indonesian waters is said to be the most
\ncritical zone in the Indian Ocean. This was where the earthquake
\nthat caused the Dec. 26 tsunami originated.<\/p>\n
"The international community is convinced that there is a need
\nfor an early global warning system for the Indian Ocean," said
\nBulmahn, adding that TEWS would be an open and decentralized
\nsystem in which real-time data covering the entire Indian Ocean
\ncould be accessed internationally.<\/p>\n
In the medium term, the system could also be used to warn
\nagainst other natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic
\neruptions, according to Bulmahn, and to indicate hazards by means
\nof satellite-based communications networks.<\/p>\n
Germany will provide assistance for TEWS development in
\nIndonesia over a three-year period. The first stage, planned to
\nfinish in October this year, will be to deploy most of the TEWS
\nequipment, beginning with the launch of the first ten GPS (Global
\nPositioning System) buoys in Indonesian waters.<\/p>\n
Other equipment will include 25 seismographs, 10 GPS stations,
\n10 GPS tide gauges and 20 ocean bottom pressure sensors.<\/p>\n
According to Kusmayanto, the equipment will cost around 45
\nmillion euro.<\/p>\n
He added that the equipment would be located in certain areas
\nof the 12,000 kilometers of tsunami-prone coastline in the Indian
\nOcean. "To define the optimal spots, we will invite scientists
\nfrom Germany and Indonesia (to determine these)."<\/p>\n
The main problem comes beyond the implementation of the TEWS
\ntechnology, according to Kusmayanto. "We need to make sure that
\nthe public receives and immediately acts upon being warned of
\npossible disasters. We plan to broadcast (warnings) through, for
\nexample, television, radio, newspapers, mosque speakers and
\nchurch bells."<\/p>\n
He said that correct operation and maintenance of the
\ntechnology was critical because data coming from the TEWS system
\nwould be available internationally.<\/p>\n
Thus, capacity building measures would be an indispensable
\npart of the concept, said Bulmahn. (005)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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