[Kabar-indonesia] Tsunami Victims Still Awaiting Aid [+So-So Warning System; Unesco]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

6 reports: 

- JP: Tsunami victims wait for tide to turn 

- JP Interview/State Minister for Research 
  and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman: 
  'We aim to build structure and culture to 
  respond to tsunamis' 

- ST: Tsunami preparedness plans showcased

- Experts: Tsunami Warning System So-So

- Bloomberg: Tsunami Awareness Needs 
  Improving in Indonesia, Unesco Says

- VOA: Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning 
  System Not Yet Ready

The Jakarta Post
Thursday, August 3, 2006

Tsunami victims wait for tide to turn 

Suherdjoko and Yuli Tri Suwarni, 
The Jakarta Post, Bandung, Cilacap

More than two weeks after a tsunami battered the southern coast of Java 
on July 17, many survivors are still waiting for assistance from authorities.

In two of the hardest hit areas, the West Java towns of Ciamis and 
Tasikmalaya, hundreds of families were displaced from their homes and are still living 
in makeshift shelters. 

In Ciamis, 1,391 families are living in shelters set up in six separate 
locations. A lack of funds to build them more permanent accommodations could mean 
they will have to live in the shelters for at least another three months. 

"We have provided them decent tents with public facilities including toilets 
and places of worships," Ciamis regency spokesman Wasdi Ijudi said. 

Authorities plan to build simple accommodations for those who lost their 
houses in the tsunami, but a lack of funding has delayed the construction. 

Some 160 blocks of semipermanent barracks in Ciamis and 30 blocks in 
Tasikmalaya have been planned, once the Rp 11.35 billion (US$1.2 million) in funding 
required for the work comes through from either the West Java provincial 
administration or the central government. According to the plan, each block will 
consist of 12 rooms, each measuring 20 square meters. 

However, authorities have yet to appoint a contractor for the project, and 
the West Java governor has raised questions about whether the barracks should be 
the first priority for authorities. 

Governor Danny Setiawan said the provincial administration had distributed Rp 
2 billion for emergency work in Ciamis and Tasikmalaya in the immediate 
aftermath of the tsunami. 

"We have to set our priorities, what to do first, buying boats for fishermen 
or building barracks. There has been no decision on the matter and there has 
not been a budget proposal from the regents yet," Danny said in Bandung on 
Wednesday. 

Officials in Ciamis regency have requested Rp 442 billion in assistance from 
the provincial and central governments, as well as a Rp 67 billion emergency 
fund to help the fishery industry get back on its feet. 

In Cipatujah, Tasikmalaya, affected residents have rejected calls to move 
from their homes along the coastline. 

Cipatujah district head Nazmudin Azis said most of the fishermen whose houses 
were destroyed in the tsunami planned to rebuild their homes and move back 
into them. "They're reluctant to be relocated far from the beach, because it 
would be hard for them to get to work. But we want them to be safe," he said. 

In the Central Java town of Cilacap, fishermen whose ships were damaged or 
lost in the tsunami are still waiting for assistance from the government. 

"Activity has returned to normal, with nine fish auctions already back in 
operation. But many fishermen whose boats were damaged or lost in the disaster 
have been unable to go back to sea," Misban, a former deputy of the All 
Indonesian Fishermen's Association in Cilacap, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. 

"We heard that fishermen in Pangandaran, West Java, have received Rp 2 
billion (US$217,391) in assistance but we haven't gotten anything. We are suffering 
just the same as them," he said. 

Twenty percent of the ships belonging to Cilacap's 31,000 fishermen were lost 
or suffered light to serious damage in the tsunami. 

"We want help to arrive soon. The fishing is good now but fishermen who don't 
have boats have to depend on the kindness of their friends to go to sea," 
Misband said. 

The secretary of the Cilacap regency disaster response unit, Yayan Rusiawan, 
said the regency would provide fishing nets for fishermen. However, he did not 
say when the nets would be distributed. 

The tsunami caused the regency an estimated Rp 86.6 billion in monetary 
losses. The waves damaged infrastructure and affected the tourism, farming and 
fishing industries. 

"We're currently working on recovery and rehabilitation. Rehabilitation funds 
have mostly come from the Cilacap administration budget, and we're waiting 
for assistance from the province and the central government," Yayan said. 

Central Java Deputy Governor Ali Mufiz said the province already has 
distributed Rp 884 million for tsunami victims. 

"Every tsunami victim has received Rp 90,000 cash assistance. The money is 
not for monthly living costs, but was just one-time assistance," he said. 

In Kebumen, Central Java, each family affected by the tsunami has received Rp 
500,000 in cash from the regency administration. 

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The Jakarta Post
Thursday, August 3, 2006

'We aim to build structure and culture to respond to tsunamis' 

Following the devastating 2004 tsunami in Aceh and last month's tsunami along 
the southern coast of Java, the government has pledged to speed up the 
installation of a tsunami early warning system across the archipelago. State 
Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman spoke with The Jakarta Post's 
Tubagus Arie Rukmantara and Chrysanthi Tarigan about his ministry's plans for 
an early warning system.

Question: What is the basic principle of the Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning 
System? 

Answer: The basic principle is how to pass on information to the public as 
accurately and quickly as we can to minimize casualties. 

On average, it takes a tsunami about 20 minutes to reach the nearest coastal 
area. Therefore, we want to gather data on earthquakes and their potential to 
trigger a tsunami, and then transmit this information to people living in 
tsunami-prone areas in less than 10 minutes after an earthquake strikes, so that 
people will have another 10 minutes to evacuate to a safe area. Ten minutes of 
running could get you at least two kilometers away from the coast, which 
should be far enough to escape a tsunami. 

What will it take to achieve this scenario? 

We're aiming to develop two major sectors here: structure and culture. What I 
mean by structure is the establishment of technology and information. 

The grand scenario aims to install several detectors under and above the sea. 
We will install seismographs, accelerometers, tide gauges, buoys and global 
positioning systems, all to detect movement on the ocean floor. 

All of the devices would send data to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency 
(BMG) -- both the main office in Jakarta and regional offices -- to be 
processed and calibrated in no more than four minutes. After that, we expect the data 
would reach the public within the next two minutes. So it would take only six 
minutes. 

The next challenge is to get this information to the public as soon as 
possible. The Communications and Information Ministry will be the focal point for 
this. It will work with cellular phone operators to make this data the prime 
information, meaning that the cell phone operators should prioritize this 
information in their text message traffic. 

Currently, cellular phone short messages about earthquakes are not 
prioritized, so their transmission from one point to another takes too long. The latest 
earthquake information I got from the BMG took eight minutes to get to my cell 
phone. That was too long. We should cut this to just two minutes. I believe 
we can do it, because the data travels through electromagnetic waves. 

The other way to get the message across is to set up warning systems along 
coastal areas. We will cooperate with cellular operators to install sirens on 
their base transceiver stations that stand across the country's coastal areas. 

Hasn't the equipment you mentioned already been installed in several places 
in the country? 

Yes, but the more devices we install the faster and the more accurate the 
data we receive. At the moment we only have dozens of this equipment, but later 
on we will install hundreds of them in a wider region. 

We need to be fast because we want to save lives, and we need to be accurate 
because we don't want to unnecessarily frighten people. The people are already 
suffering from economic pressures; they don't need information that will 
cause them to panic but then turns out to be a false alarm. 

What do you mean about developing a culture? 

We cannot rely on technology alone. Like in Japan, disasters still occur, but 
a culture of preparing to face disasters has been established. Disasters in 
Japan still take lives, but without the IT and the culture they have in place, 
the casualty figures could be much bigger. 

What I mean by culture is public awareness and preparedness. To accomplish 
this, we need not only prompt and accurate data, but also systematic ways to 
make people understand the data. 

First, we can do this through public education campaigns, including drawing 
up disaster awareness courses and holding drills that involve the public. 

Second, we need to pass this information to the public through every 
communication channel we have, including such popular channels as comics, books, 
articles, talk shows and puppet shows, as well as religious sermons. There's no 
prohibition against clerics disseminating information about tsunamis during 
Friday sermons. They should do this to serve their congregations. 

Third, organizing various drills, both for government officials and the 
public, to increase their capability to cope with disasters. 

Last but not least, we have to install signs in tsunami-prone areas, to let 
people know where to go and what to do. When people panic, they won't know 
where to go. 

How much will it cost to do all of this? 

The full implementation of the scenario will cost about Rp 1.2 trillion, 
which covers both structure and culture. The latter costs more than the technology 
because it involves people and it's a continuous program. 

All the money will come from the state budget, starting this year to 2009. 
But the President wants to speed it up to 2008. The Finance Ministry, the 
National Planning Agency and the House of Representatives all have given the green 
light to the budget allocation. 

Why are relying only on the state budget? Because this is an emergency and an 
important project for our people, and for such a project we shouldn't rely on 
foreign loans. 

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The Straits Times (Singapore)
Thursday, August 3, 2006

Tsunami preparedness plans showcased

Indonesia reports on its efforts to set up a national warning system

By Azhar Ghani, Indonesia Bureau Chief

TUBAN (BALI) - INDONESIA took pains to quash doubts about its
preparedness to face a tsunami at an international meeting in Bali to
discuss a warning system for the Indian Ocean.

At the three-day talks, which ended yesterday, the country presented a
report card which listed all that it had done to set up a national
tsunami warning system.

Among other things, Indonesia has beefed up its detection network with
new equipment, established a better alert system using mobile phone
messages and conducted tsunami drills.

That 600 deaths were caused by a tsunami that hit Java's southern
coast just two weeks ago became a catalyst for a realignment of
priorities in plans to set up a regional warning system.

On the first day of the Bali meeting, attended by more than 150
delegates from 28 countries and international organisations, the
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) said higher priority
must be given to issues at the so-called 'last mile'.

The IOC is the United Nations body in charge of developing the
regional warning system.

The term 'last mile' refers to downstream activities such as having an
effective communication system that will provide adequate warning to
those who are at risk as well as preparing them to face the danger of
future tsunamis.

Inadequacies were exposed during the Java tsunami when it emerged that
a warning which was sent out by Indonesia's alert centre did not reach
the affected areas in time.

Since the international initiative began more than 18 months ago, the
focus has been on developing better detection systems, said IOC
executive secretary Patricio Bernal.

He told The Straits Times: 'A good detection system is important
because we can't predict tsunamis. But the best detection system is
useless if people don't know how to react to a tsunami, or are not
warned.'

Noting that Indonesia's position is unique in that it can get hit by a
tsunami very shortly after it forms, Dr Bernal felt the country may
have been too concerned with rolling out a good detection system.

He said: 'Technology took over in Indonesia. If I were to have an
opportunity to speak to the President, I would advise him to focus on
the 'last mile'.

'I advise him to concentrate on public awareness programmes because
I'm not even sure if the best information relaying system can be fast
enough all the time.'

Another change announced here also appeared to address problems
uncovered by the Java tsunami.

In its aftermath, critics had blamed the authorities in Jakarta for
the lapse that caused a high number of deaths.

Now, the IOC will require participating nations to submit detailed
plans on the implementation of their national systems, including
specific timelines and needs.

This will be crucial to the regional effort, as the national warning
systems are the building blocks of the regional system.

Proper plans are also needed before donor countries and organisations
can be convinced to put in money, said Mr Joseph Ching of the UN's
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction programme.

The two changes, which came some 18 months after the project was
started, were endorsed by the delegates. They will meet again in
February in Kenya.

'These are important steps,' said Mr Jan Sopaheluwakan, the head of
Indonesia's delegation.

Keeping the plan for a regional warning system on track is not the
only challenge faced by the Indian Ocean nations.

Observers note that the countries involved have no real history of
close cooperation.

Instead, regional rivalries and differences abound among Australia,
Asian and African countries.

Even among the Asians, there are different blocs.

The rivalry reared its head when the Indian Ocean initiative began.

When it was first mooted, at least three countries - India, Indonesia
and Thailand - had insisted that they should host the future regional
warning centre.

The Straits Times understands that while national pride is a stumbling
block, strategic concerns may also play a part.

When it is operational, the regional centre will be the information
hub for data received from various earthquake and tsunami detection
centres around the Indian Ocean.

Earthquake data is used to monitor nuclear testing, noted a delegate
who did not want to be named.

But Dr Bernal is hopeful that all the obstacles can be overcome,
provided that participating countries kept up the good work.

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Experts: Tsunami Warning System So-So

By MARGIE MASON, Associated Press Writer

BALI Indonesia, August 2 (AP) -- A tsunami warning system is now in
place for Indian Ocean countries, but experts said Wednesday there is
still room for improvement in methods to convey the alerts to coastal
communities.

A tsunami that killed 600 people in Indonesia two weeks ago exposed
some shortcomings in a system still being built after the Dec. 26,
2004 disaster that killed almost 217,000 people in a dozen Indian
Ocean countries, experts at a U.N.-backed meeting said.

Two international agencies issued warnings that the powerful sub-sea
earthquake on July 17 could spawn destructive waves crashing into
Java's southern coasts. But Indonesian officials in the capital
Jakarta did not pass them on to local communities in time.

"The system is only as good as the response," Joseph Chung of the
U.N.'s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said after the
three-day meeting to assess progress on the $126 million Indian Ocean
Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System.

Patricio Bernal, executive secretary of the U.N's Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission, described last month's disaster as "very
frustrating."

Nineteen months after the 2004 carnage, 23 monitoring stations have
been put in place in the Indian Ocean to quickly measure the strength
of underwater quakes and assess the tsunami threat.

That information is sent to the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center and the Japanese Meteorological Agency, which then relay it to
individual countries at risk.

Bernal said an assessment must be conducted to determine areas and
populations that are most vulnerable. Then, he said, local officials
must draw up plans for their area such as how to involve police or
military, and whether to install loudspeakers.

"You have to have a real down-to-earth plan on how to do it," he said.
"There's no way that the central authority can do that."

Indonesia, Pakistan and Iran are especially vulnerable to tsunamis
because they are near tectonic fault lines meaning waves can slam into
coastlines within minutes of a quake.

In those countries, especially quick reaction times must be built into
training, said Peter Koltermann, of UNESCO's tsunami unit.

In Indonesia "nobody has time to think because time is short," he
said. "Here the system is tested at full speed and no excuses."

Some experts said children in coastal communities should learn about
the threat of tsunamis in school, while signs on beaches and cards
inside hotel rooms should advise people to quickly move away from the
coast if they feel an earthquake.

Leaders in vulnerable villages should have plans in place to quickly
move vulnerable populations such as the elderly or young children away
from the shore, experts said.

Jan Sopaheluwakan, a geologist at the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences, said plans being discussed for the country included
installing sirens on cell phone towers and including mosques and
harbor authorities in warning plans.

Officials also plan to better utilize television and radio stations to
get warning messages out faster.

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Tsunami Awareness Needs Improving in Indonesia, Unesco Says

August 3 (Bloomberg) -- People living in coastal areas in Indonesia
and other Indian Ocean countries need to be more aware of the risk of
tsunamis, Unesco said, three and a half weeks after more than 650
people died in a tsunami in Java.

At the end of a conference in Bali, Indonesia, on progress on
developing a warning system for Indian Ocean countries, Unesco said
that, while detection networks are almost in place, more needs to be
done to make coastal populations ``tsunami savvy.''

``The best technology will not help those populations living on a
coast close to the epicenter of a major earthquake,'' Patricio Bernal,
a Unesco official, said in a statement on the UN body's Web site.
``Local authorities must have solid planning in place to get people
away from the area as quickly as possible.''

Tsunami awareness has become more important since December 2004 when
an earthquake near the coast of Sumatra sparked a tsunami that swept
across the Indian Ocean killing more than 220,000 people from
Indonesia to Somalia. Many coastal areas still haven't been equipped
with sirens or other alarms to warn of approaching waves.

Communities on the south coast of Java didn't get warnings sent to the
Indonesian government of a possible tsunami after a magnitude 7.7
earthquake struck off the coast on July 17. The quake was centered
more than 200 kilometers (160 miles) from the shore, allowing time for
evacuation.

The tsunami killed 658 people and left 83 missing, according to the
latest government death toll.

Monitoring Quakes

Southern coastal areas of Java, Bali and other islands in Indonesia
are vulnerable to tsunami generated by quakes along the fault line
between the Sunda plate and the Australia plate in an area
seismologists call the Java trench.

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake on June 2, 1994, in the region triggered a
tsunami that killed more than 200 people and an 8.3 magnitude
earthquake on Aug. 20, 1997, generated 15-meter waves that left nearly
200 dead, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site.

Since the December 2004 quake and tsunami, countries such as Thailand,
Malaysia and India have been installing detection buoys and setting up
warning networks.

Agencies including the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and the
Japan Meteorological Agency, which have built up decades of experience
dealing with Pacific Ocean tsunamis, send alerts to governments in the
Indian Ocean region as a temporary measure before a full system is in
place. Unesco is coordinating efforts for the Indian Ocean warning
system.

``There's been an explosion of activity in the countries of the region
over the past 18 months to build their national response systems,''
said Bernal, who is executive secretary of Unesco's Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission. ``Thailand, for example, is now confident it
can get tsunami information rapidly to people on the beach and several
others, including Madagascar and the Maldives, are getting close.''

Indonesia, Pakistan, Oman and Iran were identified as countries that
are still vulnerable.

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Voice of America
August 2, 2006

Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System Not Yet Ready

By Chad Bouchard

Jakarta -- A new regional tsunami warning system in Southeast Asia can
already detect dangerous conditions, but the network will not be
completed for up to five years. The announcement comes just two weeks
after a tsunami ripped into the Indonesia's Java Island, killing more
than 600 people who received little or no warning.

U.N. officials say an intricate alert system to watch for tsunami
conditions across the Indian Ocean will take three to five years to
complete. The comment came Wednesday as more than 150 officials from
governments and aid organizations wrapped up a three-day conference on
the Indonesian island of Bali.

The conference was called to discuss the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning
and Mitigation System. Thailand, Malaysia and India have already
launched their own warning centers. But Indonesia, with more than
50,000 kilometers of coastline to monitor in one of the world's most
active seismic zones, is lagging behind.

An undersea earthquake on July 17 sent powerful waves into the south
coast of Java, leaving 600 people dead and tens of thousands homeless.
Critics say the disaster underscores Indonesia's failure to implement
a comprehensive warning system.

Promises to construct the system were made a year and a half ago,
after more than 200 thousand people, including at least 130,000
Indonesians, were killed in the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004.

The region currently depends on alerts from the Hawaii-based Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center, which uses 23 monitoring stations across the
Indian Ocean. Getting information from there to national capitals, and
then to the districts in danger, has been the problem.

Charles McCreary, the warning center's director, says the regional
network will give critical extra minutes of warning for the people
directly at risk.

"In Hawaii it took us about 12 minutes with the global seismic network
to analyze the Java quake," he said. "With the sensors that will be
available in Indonesia, it probably won't take more than maybe about 5
minutes to analyze the quake."

McCreary says getting alerts quickly to those at risk requires a
massive communication network, with public education and evacuation
plans in place.

Weather agencies from each of the member countries are already
connected. A regional command center is expected to begin operations
in 2007, though a host country has not yet been named. The group plans
to install 25 more monitoring buoys by the end of 2008.

McCreary says the biggest challenge the group faces is finding a way
to ensure maintenance of the system.

"With having funds available now to buy equipment or to do capacity
building or to do training, those things have to be sustainable," he
continued. "So if you put in a bunch of things in now and then the
funding goes away, and you can't maintain those things, the system
will fail."

This week, the Indonesian government pledged to install 500 tsunami
alarms on existing cell phone towers along coastal areas by the end of
2006, at a cost of about $143 million. Each alarm would have a range
of about five kilometers. Plans for a mandatory alert across TV and
radio stations are also underway. The country has vowed to finish its
system by mid-2008.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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