City ponders disaster response

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Following the devastating earthquakes and tsunami in Aceh and Nias, the city administration is seeking to improve its ability to respond to natural disasters.

"The recent quakes made me think of ways we can upgrade the city's crisis response. Jakarta needs to be better prepared because it is the capital of the country and home to millions of people," Governor Sutiyoso said at City Hall on Friday.

The governor said his administration would ask for assistance from Jakarta's overseas sister cities in upgrading the city's disaster response system.

"At the least we can ask them for technological assistance to upgrade the existing disaster response system," he said.

Jakarta has several sister cities, including Seoul, Rotterdam, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Beijing, Berlin, New South Wales and Paris.

Sutiyoso said the city did not have a comprehensive and integrated system to coordinate relief efforts in the event of a major disaster like flooding, fire or earthquake.

"I have personally observed that other major cities like Seoul, Tokyo and New York have such a system in place," he said.

The only crisis center in Jakarta, which involves several city agencies, focuses on responding to floods and fires. There have been some disaster drills organized by the administration, but they involved only a few residents.

Flooding is an annual occurrence in Jakarta. Some of the worst floods in recorded history occurred in 2002, swamping much of the city, killing 31 people and forcing 300,000 residents to flee to temporary shelters.

Fire is another major concern, with almost 700 fires reported every year.

"We need a more detailed communications system, search and rescue methods and regular drills involving residents down to the lowest level in the community, which are the neighborhood units," the governor said.

City Construction Supervision and Regulation Agency head Djumhana Tjakrawirja said on Thursday most high-rise buildings in the city were designed to tolerate only mild earthquakes.

Djumhana said the Indonesian National Standards, which regulates all areas across the country, had put Jakarta as a medium-risk area for serious quakes.

He warned that the number of fatalities in the event of a large earthquake could be high because most Jakarta residents did not know what to do if a quake hit.

Jakarta experienced relatively strong quakes on Oct. 25, 2000, Dec. 19, 1999, and March, 17, 1997. No fatalities were reported in the incidents, which caused minor cracks in many buildings in the city.