RI needs tsunami early warning system

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.