Experts warn Jakarta not ready for big quake

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A earthquake on Wednesday jolted Jakarta and raised concerns that tall buildings in the capital city could be very vulnerable to larger earthquakes, experts said.

"Most buildings in Jakarta are not ready to deal with big earthquakes," Heru Sri Naryanto, a senior official in the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter about 300 kilometers southwest of the capital, hit on Wednesday afternoon. No damage or fatalities were reported here.

Many Jakartans were unaware of the jolt, which according to the National Earthquake Center (PGN) lasted for about 30 seconds at 2:40 p.m.

The tremor was felt mainly by those working or residing in tall buildings.

Naryanto, head of the BPPT's Disaster Mitigation Technology Department, said that if a big earthquake had its epicenter near Jakarta, many tall buildings in Jl. Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman, both in Central Jakarta, would likely collapse.

"Old buildings such as the Sarinah building, the Chandra building and Ministry of Religious Affairs building could not stand earthquakes for long, because the land has become weak over the years," he said.

He said that the land had lost its strength because of enormous groundwater depletion.

But after all, he said, it all depends on the people. The society should have higher awareness about the importance of the underground water reservoirs. The building owners and managers should prioritize the physical safety of their property. The city administration should be harsher in supervising and monitoring the safety standard of every building.

Placidus Petrus, country coordinator for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an international codes and standards organization, told the Post that many buildings in the city did not meet the minimum international safety standards, let alone earthquake standards.

"The building owners often neglect the standard of pipe installments, therefore they ignore the risk calculation of an earthquake," he said.

Earthquakes usually cause fractures in building foundations, crack walls and destroy carelessly installed pipes, which could cause many fires, and create more casualties in a disaster, he said.

He warned that malls around the city were not safe either.

"Mall builders always propose excellent designs with good safety standards, but when it comes to implementation, the standards are forgotten," he said.

In addition earthquake safety standards were rarely even considered and "smaller" disasters like a fire was considered minor by the management, he said.

He suggested that visitors should always be alert in every building, especially in malls, and always memorize the emergency exit routes because the security guards in those places are not ready to deal with evacuations, he said.