Reorganizing Palu

KOMPAS/AMBROSIUS HARTO

Blue tents stand in orderly rows on Monday (12/11/2018) at an emergency shelter near Gawalise Stadium in Duyu subdistrict, Tatanga district, Palu, Central Sulawesi. The emergency shelter accommodates the residents of Duyu and Balaroa subdistricts whose houses were destroyed in the Sept. 28 earthquake and ensuing liquefaction. It is one of the 301 emergency shelters accommodating 125,579 residents from Palu, Sigi and Donggala.

The Palu earthquake measuring 7.4-magnitude on Sept. 28, 2018, has left behind much work to do for the government. The future of 14,000 families now living in temporary shelters remains uncertain.Vice President Jusuf Kalla decided that the 14,000 families were to be moved to temporary homes by the end of December this year at the latest. The government has also proposed several disaster-affected areas in Central Sulawesi be declared as “red zones” that must not be resettled.

As this daily reported on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, several proposed red zones include Tolo, Talise and Petobo in Palu; Pombebe in Sigi regency; and Loli and Pantai Barat in Donggala regency. The local government and the regional representatives council (DPRD) will make a regional regulation (perda) for such spatial planning.

We emphasize that Kalla’s decision was surely made based on input from the geological agency and other institutions with data and research on potential disasters. All of us need to support the decision. A reorganization of Palu and its surrounding regions must be based on earthquake research and local wisdom and history.

Palu has a long history of disasters. In his piece in Kompas on Wednesday (3/10/2018), Ahmad Arif quoted Gegar Prasetya’s article in Natural Hazard (2001) that cited that Palu Bay and Sulawesi’s western coastline had been hit by 18 tsunamis since 1800. People in Palu have long been familiar with the terms bompatalu (three strikes of ocean waves) and nalodo (soil liquefaction).

KOMPAS/AMBROSIUS HARTO

Temporary shelters are under contstruction on Monday (12/11/2018) near Gawalise Stadium in Duyu subdistrict, Tatanga district, Palu, Central Sulawesi. The government and the private sector are cooperating in developing temporary housing for the survivors of the Central Sulawesi earthquake that struck on Sept. 28 and primarily affected Palu, Sigi and Donggala.

The Vice President’s decision makes much sense upon tracing Palu’s history of earthquakes and tsunamis. Disasters have struck in the past, are still happening today and will still occur in the future. We are just living in between them. The Vice President’s decision will have to be strengthened by a regional regulation on red zones based on scientific data and local history.

City building and management as well as railroad and airport construction should always consider earthquake scientific research. Building infrastructure is not just about driving the local economy. The earth’s and environment’s carrying capacity must also be major considerations.

City building based on disaster data should be a policy for national development. The architecture or design of buildings in disaster-prone regions must be adjusted to local conditions. Education curriculum in local schools must also contain local information on disaster preparedness.

The awareness of living in the ring of fire should foster a worldview that guides our development policies. The question now is that whether or not such an awareness and worldview is included in the vision and mission statements of the candidates for next year’s presidential election? The answer, sadly, is: No.