TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The powerful quake that rattled Pidie Jaya, Aceh, on Wednesday last week has taught us another bitter lesson, again.
Aceh is a region prone to quakes.
It is still fresh in our memory how a powerful quake in December, followed by the Tsunami, killed more than 165,000 in Aceh alone.
However, our traumatic memory of the disaster has not made us alert enough.
The quake on Wednesday claimed many lives because, again, preventive aspects were ignored.
It is so easy for us to forget past tragedies and not to learn from them.
The quake last week, measuring 6.4 in Richter scale, has claimed more than one hundred lives.
The government could have prevented the loss of lives and injures in such a big number if from the beginning it formulated a strict regulation on the requirements to construct buildings in quake-prone areas.
It is these requirements that are often ignored.
Many people were killed and injured in last week’s quake after they were trapped in buildings that are not strong enough.
Concrete buildings are the cause of a big number of death tolls every time an earthquake occurs.
Unlike traditional wooden buildings that are more flexible and can endure shocks, concrete buildings are more vulnerable to quakes if they are not built in accordance with the standard.
When a quake hit Yogyakarta in 2006, old traditional buildings were proven to be able to sustain the shocks compared to modern buildings made with concrete.
History repeats itself in Pidie Jaya.
Dozens of people were trapped in shop houses that crumbled.
It can be assured that these buildings were not built in accordance with regulations for quake-prone areas.
As a result, once a quake occurs, buildings become a killer instead of a place for protection due to the weak supervision of regional governments to the construction of buildings.
In several regions, having building permits does not become a prerequisite to construct a building.
Even if there are requirements to obtain such a permit, often time, agencies in charge of supervising buildings allow the construction those buildings without permits.
It is also often the case that the permit is issued because officials are bribed; thus supervision to the worthiness and the safety of a building is ignored.
The 2014 Tsunami disaster in Aceh that claimed hundred thousands of people should have become a momentum for the government to reform the process of giving building permits.
The construction of anti-quake buildings must be done not only during the restoration project after the quake.
Officials must also be firm in regulating and supervising the construction of buildings in order to prevent more deaths when disasters strike.
The issuance of a building permit in Aceh needs to be tightened because in addition to facing threats of quake from Indo-Australia fault in the south of Sumatera island, Aceh is also threatened with the Samalanga-Sipopok fault, which is also equally dangerous although it does not potentially generate the Tsunami. The fault that is centered inland yang once rocked Pidie Jaya in 1967.
Indeed, we cannot predict, let alone prevent, quakes. However, regulations on the construction of buildings and a strict supervision will at least minimize a bigger death toll.
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