According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), 272 people have been killed and 62,545 people have been forced to flee the site of the earthquake.
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KOMPAS EDITOR
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KOMPAS
Officers evacuate earthquake victims in Cianjur, West Java, with limited tools.
We mourn with the victims and displaced people, whose numbers continue to increase in the wake of the devastating earthquake impacts Cianjur and Sukabumi.
The shallow crustal earthquake occurred on Monday afternoon (21/11/2022) with a magnitude of 5.6 and an epicenter located inland at a depth of 10 kilometers.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), 272 people have been killed and 62,545 people have been forced to flee the site of the earthquake. Evacuating the victims from landslides or collapsed buildings is a challenge, while transportation has been cut off due to damaged roads and bridges.
The Cianjur-Sukabumi earthquake was reminiscent of the earthquake that struck Yogyakarta on Saturday morning (27/5/2006). The 5.9-magnitude earthquake killed more than 5,000 people and destroyed around 4,000 buildings and infrastructure. That earthquake’s epicenter was also located inland, 15 kilometers east of the Opak Fault.
The Cimandiri Fault traverses the Cianjur-Sukabumi area, while the Opak Fault traverses Yogyakarta.
The two earthquakes were both shallow, with their epicenters located inland, and nearly similar devastation. Both affected regions are also located on seismic fault lines. The Cimandiri Fault traverses the Cianjur-Sukabumi area, while the Opak Fault traverses Yogyakarta.
DOKUMENTASI BNPB
An earthquake damaged a school building in Cianjur, West Java, Monday (11/21/2022).
A growing number of people have been settling these disaster-prone areas. The Dutch had banned building brick houses in Cianjur and Sukabumi, and instead recommended wood and bamboo houses. The Cugenang area, which is prone to landslides and has now claimed many lives in Monday’s earthquake, used to be categorized as land unsuitable for settlement (Kompas, 24/11/2022).
It is deplorable that this knowledge has been overlooked over time. With government policy even including that dwelling in wooden and bamboo houses as among the criteria for being poor, people feel induced to build brick houses. It is similar to rice consumption being used as an indicator of wellness, thereby undermining the food diversification and security program.
Even though experts have repeatedly warned of earthquakes, there has never been a comprehensive mitigation or outreach effort to minimize the disaster impacts. The coastal area of Banda Aceh, which was swept away by the tsunami in 2004, is now densely resettled.
This is the issue that the central and regional governments must address. While managing victims and dealing with the impacts of an earthquake are part of the post-disaster mitigation measures, it is crucial to implement a spatial blueprint that designates disaster-prone zones.
Encourage them to combine it with contemporary knowledge in the field, as once introduced by Sarwidi, a civil engineering professor at the Indonesian Islamic University, Yogyakarta.
The people must be educated on the need to build earthquake-resistant houses, which is a centuries-old local wisdom of the archipelago. Encourage them to combine it with contemporary knowledge in the field, as once introduced by Sarwidi, a civil engineering professor at the Indonesian Islamic University, Yogyakarta. Another option is to reinforce brick walls with chicken mesh, as recommended by earthquake-safe building expert, Teddy Boen (Kompas, 23/11/2022).
Indonesia is located on converging tectonic faults that make us prone to frequent earthquakes. However, in the event of an earthquake, we should be able to minimize the impacts with the knowledge we have acquired.
