Quake decree calls for expert hiring

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a series of recent earthquakes including the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake, Indonesia has become more aware of the danger they pose.

A new decree, effective Jan. 1, 2008, will require developers of high-rise buildings to hire soil experts. The city administration wants to ensure buildings higher than eight stories will survive earthquakes and tremors.

"In December a group of geotechnicians will give information to developers and construction companies on the importance of soil and surface analysis," head of the city's building supervisory agency, Hari Sasongko, said Thursday.

He said geotechnicians would advise construction firms and developers about characteristics of soils at construction sites. They would advise safe designs, systems and materials for each high-rise building.

Hari said the decree was not necessarily issued because current buildings were not up to safety standards. "Most buildings of more than eight stories in Jakarta are designed to sustain earthquakes of up to magnitude 8 on the Richter scale,"

Attending this weeks Asia Megacities Forum on building sustainable and safer cities, Hari said the decree was an additional precautionary measure.

Geophysicists have said Jakarta is unlikely to be at the epicenter of a major quake, however, due to the continual shift of tectonic plates along eastern Sumatra and southern Java, Jakarta will likely bear the impact of earthquakes nearby.

This year Jakarta felt a number of tremors. During the earthquake in Bengkulu in September, employees working in Jakarta's high-rise buildings felt the earth move, sending hundreds downstairs in panic.

Hari said the new national standards would complying with an international code. The standards had already been introduced but had not been enforced due to the high costs involved.

"We would incorporate new design standards into the construction cost, using new materials and designs. The cost of construction would increase considerably," he said.

At the same forum, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo announced Thursday Jakarta's participation in the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI), a meeting of representatives from 20 Asian cities based in Quezon City, the Philippines.

Jakarta's participation marks a new approach to earthquakes as a potential hazard facing the city.

However, Fauzi said, the main hazard and utmost concern facing Jakarta was floods.

"Although we are not likely to be at the epicenter of a quake, we must be prepared to reduce risks."