TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Some 3.8 million Indonesia people living in 233 cities in coastal area are facing significant tsunami risk.
“Tsunamis are unpredictable and there will be recurrence on a 200-year cycle. More so because Indonesia is prone to tsunami,” the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Wednesday on a seminar on climat change at Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Indonesia.
According to Sutopo, Indonesia has a limited number of tsunami early-warning equipment to cover its vast maritime areas. To add insult to injury, 25 tsunami warning bouys in the Indian Ocean and Arufuru Waters have been inoperable.
Between 1929 to 2014, Indonesia was hit by 173 tusnamis, both small and large. “In 2004, tsunami in Aceh killed 200,000 people due to the lack of tsunami early warning system,” Sutopo said.
Sutopo said that Indonesia has a horrific tsunami history. Indonesia is also home to a large number of volcanoes. In addition, the country experiences a lot of shifts in the ocean crust, making it prone to earthquakes that could cause tsunamis.
For example, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Flores caused a 36-meter high tsunami, leaving 3,600 people died and 18,000 homes destroyed. “Eruption of the mountains of Tambora, Toba and Krakatoa created tsunamis that caused deaths,” he said.
IMAM HAMDI
