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