RI needs tsunami early warning system

Retno L.P. Marsudi, Jakarta

In order to set up a tsunami early warning system in Indonesia, the country will host an international workshop on April 28 and April 29. This workshop is being organized by the Office of the State Minister for Research and Technology, in cooperation with other related ministries and institutions, including the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

There are at least two things that must be accomplished at this workshop.

First, Indonesia is expected to present a grand design of its tsunami early warning system. To prepare such a design, several institutions should be intensely involved. The design will not only cover the technical aspects of the system, such as the availability of compatible technology for Indonesia, and the placement of the technology, but also should touch upon how to get the warning out to people as quickly as possible at the first sign of a disaster.

It is worth noting that ministries in Indonesia are now in the process of finalizing the grand design of the system.

Second, the workshop should secure the resources to materialize the system, both from domestic and international sources. The workshop is an excellent opportunity to get the international community to pay up on their commitments.

Without this, the workshop will end up simply being an exchange of views and a discussion on how the system should be established, without any concrete steps toward financing the system. If that is the case, it will take more time to get a warning system into place.

In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami that hit Aceh and North Sumatra on Dec. 26, a number of countries indicated their interest in assisting Indonesia in establishing an early warning system. Indonesia and Germany signed a joint declaration of cooperation concerning the realization of a tsunami early warning system on March 14. Germany pledged to assist Indonesia by, among things, providing up to 25 seismometers, up to 10 GPS stations, up to 10 GPS-controlled tide gauges, up to 10 GPS buoys and up to 20 ocean-bottom pressure sensors.

However, it is not enough to cooperate with just one country to establish a comprehensive tsunami early warning system in Indonesia.

The Netherlands also offered to help Indonesia. This offer was made during a bilateral meeting between the two countries in Jakarta in February.

During a general meeting of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) in Nairobi on Feb. 25, Indonesia signed a letter of intent with the organization on cooperation in the field of environmental recovery and rehabilitation in the aftermath of the tsunami. This cooperation could be used to further explore concrete cooperation to set up an early warning system in Indonesia.

Those are only some of the examples of the international commitment to Indonesia on establishing a system that should be followed up on.

To follow up, the identification of possible donors will be of paramount importance. International organizations should be invited to participate in this because some countries want to channel their assistance not through bilateral channels, but through multilateral channels, for example through the multidonor trust fund managed by the World Bank.

Let us work to make the international workshop on a tsunami early warning system a success and achieve some concrete results at the gathering. If we can do this, the road map on establishing a national early warning system will no longer be deferred.

The author is a senior diplomat and the current director of West European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This article represents her personal views.