Govt prioritizes warning system
Rendi A. Witular and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The government will soon set up a national early warning system that would help minimize fatalities and injuries in the event of a natural disaster, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Friday.
He said that the offices of the State Minister of Research and Technology and the Ministry of Communications and Information would have worked out the basics of the system by next week, and it would be put in place next month.
The system would utilize the technology owned by the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) for detection purposes, and alert the public via police stations of any natural disaster, such as an earthquake or flood.
The plan to set up an early warning system for natural disasters was largely brought about by the devastating tsunami on Dec. 26 and the recent huge earthquake in Sumatra, which is feared to have killed more than 1,000 people on Nias Island and in neighboring areas.
Analysts have issued warnings of more quakes to come.
They said the Dec. 26 earthquake set off a domino effect of seismic instability that could last decades and kill thousands.
Seismologists are already sure that Monday's magnitude-8.7 quake off Sumatra island was the direct result of raised stress levels in the earth's crust caused by the Dec. 26 tremor. And they say there is now a heightened risk of further large quakes -- not just aftershocks -- in the area, although predicting them accurately remains impossible, AFP reported.
Last month, the government of Indonesia signed an agreement with Germany to set up a tsunami early warning system in October.
Separately, Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi announced that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the National Disaster Management and Refugee Coordination Board (Bakornas PBP), BMG and the Ministry of Home Affairs to establish natural disaster management task forces.
"The President has instructed Bakornas to set up task forces for emergency response in areas prone to natural disaster," he said.
The task forces would consist of government institutions such as the police, BMG, state-owned electricity company (PLN) and regional administrations.
Minister of Home Affairs M. Ma'ruf said he had issued a ministerial instruction on natural disaster mitigation for regional administrations.
"I issued it yesterday, but it highlighted general issues. I will provide more detailed instructions today (Friday)," he said.