Prevention is better than construction

Prevention is better than construction

Following the devastating earthquake-triggered tsunamis that
occurred on Dec. 26 and claimed well over 100,000 lives and
unaccounted for material losses in Aceh and part of north Sumatra
province, people will probably ask what the government can do in
the future to minimize the destruction of similar disasters.

Indonesia, home to more than 90 active volcanoes throughout
the archipelago, according to the United States' National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is almost 80 percent
covered by epicenters and is surrounded by many tectonic cracks
and sits on an area where three volcanic strains meet (Jaha
Nababan says from Boston in his Letter to The Jakarta Post, Jan.
10).

In view of the country's condition and the many earthquake and
tsunami disasters that have jolted the nation over the last
couple of decades -- including the famous Krakatoa volcanic-
triggered tsunami that claimed over 35.000 lives in 1883 -- the
Ministry of Public Works and the Indonesian Cabinet Secretariat
have actually done something by setting up cooperation with the
Japanese government under the Developing Nations Technical
Cooperation Program.

Every year, the aforementioned government agencies, together
with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), hold an
International Advanced Course on Seismology and Earthquake
Engineering in the ministry's Center for Human Settlement in
Bandung, by inviting participants from developing countries in
Asia and Africa. No doubt a lot of technologies have since been
acquired by Indonesian experts transferred by Japanese geologists
and earthquake and probably tsunami mitigation experts.

Indonesian people seem to be more familiar with fire brigades
who sometimes hold fire prevention exercises in high rise
buildings, and the show-case volcanic eruption early warning
system, but none of the geologists or earthquake experts have
conducted similar exercises for earthquake or tsunami prevention.
This is something that the government should pay attention to.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)'s readiness to lead efforts to set up a
global early warning system needs to be responded to by the
government. Thailand, on the other hand, was quick to respond by
vowing to set up their own if other neighboring countries were
unwilling to do so.

Setting up an early warning system would mean the prevention
of greater losses. Surely prevention is better than construction
because it is cheaper to strengthen a house than to construct one
after devastation.

M. RUSDI

Jakarta