RI, U.S. sign tsunami warning pact

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United States government is to help Indonesia establish a tsunami early warning system that could save lives in the event of another massive earthquake.

The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration signed Friday an agreement that would sanction the establishment of a system for forecasting tsunamis and delivering warnings.

Under the agreement, the U.S. government will contribute in the construction of two tsunami detection buoy systems, the development of tsunami forecast modeling and training in tsunami detection technology.

The buoy systems will be launched in June and August this year.

Tsunami models can help emergency teams in potentially affected areas plan for events and educate residents on how to protect themselves in the event of a catastrophe.

The U.S. government will give US$1 million to help Indonesia develop the system.

The agreement was a follow-up to a memorandum of understanding signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and U.S. President George W. Bush last November about developing a multi-hazard warning system.

"Today's pledged partnership to develop an Indonesian tsunami warning system is one of the first major initiatives to come out of this important agreement," U.S. Embassy Charg‚ d'Affaires John Heffern said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Under the agreement, Indonesia and the U.S. will also join the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System.

This system, together with another deployed under a partnership with the Thai government, will help provide timely warnings for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region.

Indonesia has been rocked by large-scale earthquakes in recent years, two of which resulted in devastating tsunamis, in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in 2004 and Pangandaran, West Java, in 2006.

An earthquake-triggered tsunami in Aceh in December 2004 wreaked havoc around the rim of the Indian Ocean and killed around 165,000 people in Aceh and North Sumatra.

The tsunami damaged more than 800 kilometers of coastline and destroyed thousands of homes.

In Pangandaran, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that washed away the tourist destination, killing at least 650 people.

Experts have said that death toll from the 2004 tsunami could have been reduced if countries around the rim of the Indian Ocean had been in possession of an early warning system.