Indonesia eyes early tsunami warning by end 2006

Indonesia eyes early tsunami warning by end 2006

Reuters, Jakarta

Indonesia hopes to have an early warning system able to issue tsunami alerts within five minutes on quake-prone Sumatra by the end of next year, and an integrated network covering the country by 2010, a senior official said.

Wendy Aritenang, a deputy minister at the Research and Technology Department who is overseeing development of the system, said on Thursday that initial equipment costs had been put at $120 million under a detailed plan for the project.

But Aritenang said even the most sophisticated system might not have helped much when a huge tsunami smashed into Aceh on Dec. 26, killing up to 160,000 people, because the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that triggered it was too close to the coastline.

For now, Aritenang said officials from various agencies and research bodies were focusing first on Sumatra's coast.

"It probably won't be five minutes but our goal is that. It depends on the funding, whether it comes down on schedule, whether contributions are realized," he said in an interview.

"Of course, we have to start with cities which are more vulnerable to the hazard. My guess is at the end of next year, we can have quite an effective early warning system. The buoys will be there, the real-time tide gauges will be there."

Aritenang denied Indonesia had been slow to draw up plans for the tsunami early warning system, saying the media had shown little interest in what his agency was doing.

Germany has signed an agreement to help Indonesia while Japan and China are also expected to provide aid, he said.

Documents covering the five-year plan and given to Reuters call for upgraded equipment for measuring quakes and detecting tsunamis, with analysis of the information before it is sent out to communities via text messages and other means.

Buoys with sensors on the ocean floor, tide gauges, seismographs, global positioning system monitors and high-tech vessels will all feed information into 10 regional offices with a national center in Jakarta staffed around the clock.

The documents show any quake above magnitude 7 would trigger a warning from the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency. Data would be studied to see if it could spark a tsunami, and a decision made about whether to issue an alert -- all within five minutes.

Aritenang said virtually the entire country, which lies along the "Pacific Ring of Fire" where plate boundaries intersect, was prone to tsunamis.

Indeed, including the Dec 26. waves off Sumatra, five of the six most deadly tsunamis in the last 25 years have been focused on the world's largest archipelago, the documents showed.

The five-year plan calls for increased public awareness, the teaching in schools about tsunamis, evacuation drills, the stockpiling of vital supplies, escape routes for major population centers and city areas designated safe.

Meanwhile, about $1.2 billion in foreign aid is ready to be spent on reconstruction projects in tsunami-ravaged Aceh, the chief of Indonesia's rehabilitation agency for the province said on Thursday.

"I just met the president to review what the agency has done. One thing that was reported is that $1.2 billion in aid is ready to be spent," Kuntoro Mangkusubroto told reporters after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

On May 9, after he had been in the job for about a week, Kuntoro said he was shocked at how little had been done for survivors and that virtually no money had been disbursed for reconstruction.

The government has yet to disburse its own aid for rebuilding because it is awaiting approval from parliament, said Susilo's spokesman, Andi Mallarangeng. The government has set aside Rp 6 trillion ($635 million) from the 2005 budget for rebuilding.

Kuntoro has said he did not expect those funds to be available until September.

One problem in getting foreign reconstruction funds moving was the time it took to get the Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency set up, with donors unsure who to get approval from for projects, Kuntoro has said.

The agency was incorporated in an Aceh reconstruction blueprint that was only finished in mid-April.

The $1.2 billion in foreign aid includes $600 million from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and a range of national Red Cross organizations for a multitude of rebuilding projects.

Kuntoro's agency will ultimately manage nearly $5 billion in reconstruction aid over the coming years.