Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – A minister said Wednesday there was a warning of the tsunami that hit the southern coast Monday, but added that it was issued at too short notice to alert local communities.
State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman's comments came after media criticism of the lack of a warning despite 2004's tsunami in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Other experts said Wednesday that traditional approaches could be used to alert coastal communities due to the failure to install high-tech, costly tsunami warning systems.
Kusmayanto said a warning was issued about seven minutes before the tragedy, which has left at least 500 people dead and more than 600 missing in beach resorts and fishing communities. "However, there wasn't enough time to alert all residents in the area," he said on the sidelines of a seminar in Jakarta.
He added that the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) also received the warning, and sent it by short message service to 400 government officials and the mass media. "Most importantly, (it was sent) to electronic media," he said, adding that the alert originated from countries equipped with high-technology warning systems, such as Japan, Australia, and Germany.
However, he added, the giant waves took only 20 minutes before inundating coastal areas, while the BMG had spent seven minutes to alert the officials and the media and was thus unable to reach the local communities. A BMG official admitted Tuesday that it announced there was no danger of a tsunami about 30 minutes before it struck.
Kusmayanto argued that the distribution of information was inevitably time consuming, and that even the fastest early warning system developed in Japan still could only alert the public 13 minutes before an incident.
Kusmayanto said the country needed to install tsunami early warning devices every 10 kilometers along the country's waters facing subduction zones, where ocean floor movements might trigger tsunamis. "Indonesia has around 1,200 spots that are prone to disasters, and we should install early warning systems in these areas."
Unfortunately, he added, the government had only 10 early warning devices, donated by the German government, but only two were installed and they had been vandalized. "We have installed two of them in the Indian Ocean next to Sumatra island to test the devices. We are planning to install all of them," he said, adding that he expected the installment would be completed in 2007.
The US, Japan and China have made a commitment to help the government provide early warning systems, as well as carry out research. "President George W. Bush is coming to Indonesia in November to talk about helping the Indonesian government to handle disasters," he said.
Japanese researchers, he added, would cooperate with their Indonesian counterparts to study the source of disasters, including lending a submarine and ships for deep-sea research.
Meanwhile, a senior researcher with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, Ari Herlambang, said the installment of a high-tech tsunami early warning system throughout the archipelago was infeasible because of the cost.
"Considering our present state budget condition, I don't think it's possible to do that," said the environmental technology expert. He said buoys using sensor detection equipment could cost about Rp 1 billion each, excluding maintenance costs and the essential communication system to relay information about development. "Each buoy should be equipped with its own communication system that could cost around Rp 5 billion," he said.
He noted that good telecommunication infrastructure should also be established. "The early warning system aims to mitigate the impact of tsunamis by informing the public from 10 to 15 minutes before a tsunami hits the identified area. Without proper Internet and fixed line infrastructure, how could you expect the information could be processed and sent to the people in a flash?"
Indonesia is hobbled by poor telecommunication infrastructure, especially in remote areas in the eastern part of the country, with only 9 million fixed line phones and 3 million Internet users compared to the country's over 220 million population.
Ari warned that without such infrastructure, the billions of rupiah spent on an early warning system would be useless. A more feasible solution, he added, would be to resort to traditional approaches, such as increasing awareness of danger signs among the public.
"One of the lessons learned from Monday's tsunami is that people fled to higher ground after high waves descended on the coast. They should have done it when the water subsided in the first place. People should understand this." As well as sirens, gongs and bamboo drums could be used to sound the alarm.
Senior official at the National Development Planning Board, Medrilzam, urged all regional administrations in tsunami-prone areas to review their coastal spatial planning, and ban the construction of buildings 100 meters or closer to the shoreline.
"We should do everything in our power to mitigate casualties of disasters, including upholding the environmental aspect in spatial planning," he said.