Global IssuesDEVELOPMENT: Indonesia Still Struggling with Disaster Management
Despite being hit by powerful earthquakes this year, Indonesia is still reeling from the lack of an effective disaster management system that could prevent extensive loss of life and damage to property.
At least this is the view of certain individuals and groups who are struggling to cope with the impacts of the earthquakes that have jolted Indonesia this year and claimed the lives of scores of people besides causing millions worth of damage to property.
Irfantoni Herlambang gets anxious at the slightest vibration in his office, located on the 17th floor of a 31-story building in central Jakarta business district. There is hardly any mitigation scheme that would secure the people should another quake hit the country, he rued. During this year’s earthquakes, for instance, many people appeared dazed and confused, not knowing what to do or where to go.
'Some said that we should hide under the table, others thought we should go downstairs while a few were running around like a headless chicken,' said a staff of an American donor agency, who declined to be named.
'In many cases, the casualties (from earthquakes) were caused not so much by earthquakes as by buildings not being sturdy enough, causing them to collapse,' said Cecep Subarya, noted earthquake expert from the National Coordination Agency for Surveys and Mapping (BAKOSURTANAL), which studies and collects geographical data, sees the need for the provincial administrations to include disaster risk into their urban planning. 'In areas that are prone to earthquake, the buildings should be constructed differently to be able to withstand earthquakes.'
This yea, a series earthquakes have rattled the country—a 7.5-magnitude quake on Sept. 2 in Tasikmalaya, West Java, and a 7.9-magnitude quake in Padang capital and Padang Pariaman regency on Sept. 30. The former resulted in some 79 casualties and displaced 285,808 people; the West Sumatra quake killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed thousands of buildings. On Oct. 16 another earthquake shook the Indonesian capital.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire that is prone to frequent seismic activity. In December 2004, a 9.3-magnitude quake jolted Aceh in northern Indonesia, triggering a huge tsunami that killed about 125,000 people and affected at least ten countries, including Indonesia.
Stronger-magnitude earthquakes are expected in the South-east Asian country of an estimated 230 million people, seismologists have warned. The worst is yet to come, they say.
Herlambang is not alone in his predicament. Many Indonesians are scared of the prospects of another earthquake. His American colleague, Bryony Jones, said she was quite appalled that the management of the building where their office was located had not given its occupants orientation on the building’s security measures. There were no earthquake drills either.
This became evident when she saw people huddled together just outside the building, seemingly unaware that falling shards of glass from broken windows could hurt them severely, it not fatally, 'especially during aftershocks,' which can be more dangerous, according to Jones, who is no stranger to earthquakes, being a native of quake-prone California.
'Lots of people re-entered the building shortly after (an earthquake) to continue working, without any announcement (or precautionary warnings) regarding their safety from the building (management). Had this happened in San Francisco, most definitely people would not be allowed to enter the building immediately,' she said. 'I think most Indonesians are used to this sort of natural disaster,' Jones added.
Despite Indonesia being prone to disaster, particularly earthquakes, there appear to be no systematic and carefully thought out efforts toward disaster prevention education for the people.
West Java, for example, is prone to landslides, since the area is porous and fragile, said Subarya. Yet, modest houses were built below the hills and around the landslide-prone area. 'The construction of buildings should consider disaster risks. It does not have to be expensive. It just needs sturdier frame,' he said, adding that this should form part of a disaster management scheme. Criticisms are also rife over the quality of disaster response and rehabilitation as well as reconstruction programmes, given numerous reports of uneven aid distribution, lack of cooperation and coordination among responsible government agencies.
Sunaryo Adhiatmoko of Al-Azhar Foundation, a non-governmental organisation focusing on education and charity, said there seems to be confusion in relief distribution and what kind of aid should be given to disaster victims.
'The food distributed, for example, has always been instant noodles. First, there’s usually hardly any clean water to cook it. Secondly, it is not healthy. Poor people are often not reached either, and in some cases, aids pile up in rich people’s houses,' he said.
The government, he said, must identify first what the people actually need. Government data must also be verified at the grassroots level, added Adhiatmoko, whose foundation is building 300 quake-proof houses in West Sumatra.
'Dealing with earthquake is not the same as dealing with tsunami and floods. During earthquake, people lose houses, not their jobs, so the important thing is rebuilding their homes and giving them motivation and helping them find a way out (of their situation),' he said.
Two months after the West Java was hit by an earthquake, he said there were still inadequate facilities to house the affected individuals. Houses had yet to be built while some people were still living inside tents or with relatives or friends, and school children were still holding classes inside makeshift tents.
Syamsul Maarif, head of the National Agency for Disaster Management, explained that houses of affected people had yet to be built because the House of Representatives had just approved the budget to rebuild houses and infrastructure. This allocation came up to a total of 1.7 trillion rupiahs (180 million U.S. dollars) for West Java and seven trillion rupiahs (744 million U.S. dollars) for West Sumatra.
'Please be patient. It is not an easy job,' he pleaded. 'We also need people’s cooperation in this (effort) instead of expecting the government to do all the job.' The government, he said, has employed teams of experts in West Java and West Sumatra to educate people on disaster risk and response as well as teach them how to build sturdier houses.
Hening Parlan, executive director of Humanitarian Forum Indonesia, which is made up of NGOs dealing with disaster management, said if the government was still struggling with a viable disaster management and recovery programme, it was only because it had never been a priority.
She pointed out that Indonesia did not have a disaster management law until 2007, three years after the Asian tsunami hit. Prior to that, the disaster management programme was being handled by the National Coordination Board for Disaster Management, whose tasks were limited to emergency response. Under its programme, there was no urgency to conduct risk reduction activities.
'Given that it was only in 2007 that we had the law, it is understandable that a good disaster management programme has yet to be in place. But organisationally and regulation-wise, there has actually been an improvement,' Parlan said.
BAKOSURTANAL’s Subarya said that since the 2004 tsunami, the government has built a sophisticated early warning system for earthquake and tsunami throughout the country. 'The system can decide the depth and magnitude of an earthquake in less than three minutes, as well as observe a tidal wave in ports nationwide,' he said.
Yet some of the disaster equipment acquired after the law was passed have either been stolen or are not working, he said. He blamed this on 'poverty (and) 'lack of experts available to operate them,' respectively.
Lack of disaster information among the people can only be attributed to the lack of an effective disaster management programme. 'When the siren wails warnings about an earthquake or tsunami, many people still do not know what to do,' he said.
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service