AirAsia Jet Tail Found: Basarnas Chief

Jakarta Globe,  Jan 07, 2015

An undated handout picture released by the Indonesian Search And Rescue
Agency (BASARNAS) on Jan. 7, 2014 shows a part of the crashed AirAsia Flight
 QZ 8501 laying on the sea floor, off Pangkalan Bun, Central Borneo, Indonesia.
Rescue teams found the tail of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea
 with 162 people on board on Dec. 28, 2014, the search and rescue chief Bambang
Sulistyo confirmed on Jan. 7. (EPA Photo/BASARNAS)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency, or Basarnas, on Wednesday announced they had recovered the tail from the wreck of AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

“We have a picture of the part and we can confirm that it’s the tail,” Bambang Soelistyo, chief of the Basarnas, told reporters at a press conference in Jakarta.

Soelistyo said the picture — taken by one of the recovery divers — showed the piece on the seabed with “AX” and “Air” visible on the side, which confirmed it was part of the Indonesia AirAsia plane. The piece of the wreckage was about 10 meters in length, five meters in width and three meters high, according to a report from Detik.com quoting Bambang.

The tail is the section where the crucial black box voice and flight data recorders are located.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes has tweeted:

I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there.
— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) January 7, 2015

The A320-200 crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 en route from Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board. As of Wednesday morning, the total number of bodies recovered was 40.

On Monday Reuters reported a captain of an Indonesian Navy patrol vessel claimed to have found the tail of the Indonesia AirAsia plane, but there was no confirmation.

Indonesia’s meteorological agency, or BMKG, has suggested bad weather may have at least partly caused the A320-200 to crash. Tropical storms are frequent near the equator during the current wet season.

“The most probable weather phenomenon was icing which can cause engine damage due to a cooling process. This is just one of the possibilities that occurred based on the analysis of existing meteorological data,” a BMKG report, released last week, said.

Ice May Have Caused AirAsia Crash: BMKG

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jan 04, 2015

Indonesia's meteorological agency has suggested the weather at the time
 Flight QZ8501went down sparked the disaster after it appeared to fly into
storm clouds. (AFP Photo)

Pangkalan Bun. Weather was the “triggering factor” in the crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 with icing likely causing engine damage, Indonesia’s meteorological agency said, as divers found another body Sunday during a momentary respite from bad weather that has hampered rescue efforts.

The Airbus A320-200 crashed into the Java Sea a week ago carrying 162 people from Indonesia’s second city Surabaya to Singapore, and relief workers are hunting for the “black box” flight data recorders to determine the cause of the crash.

An initial report on the website of BMKG, Indonesia’s meteorological agency, suggested the weather at the time the plane went down sparked the disaster after it appeared to fly into storm clouds.

“Based on the available data received on the location of the aircraft’s last contact, the weather was the triggering factor behind the accident,” said the report.

“The most probable weather phenomenon was icing which can cause engine damage due to a cooling process. This is just one of the possibilities that occurred based on the analysis of existing meteorological data.”

Five major parts of the Airbus A320-200 have now been found off Kalimantan, but rough weather throughout the week has hampered the relief process, a huge operation assisted by several countries including the United States and Russia.

As the weather cleared, a team of divers went down to the biggest part of the wreckage on Sunday morning and recovered one body, bringing to 31 the number of victims found, but bad conditions forced them to surface again.

“They managed to go down but the visibility at the sea bottom was zero, it was dark and the seabed was muddy, with currents of three to five knots,” search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters, adding that heavy rain and big waves were continuing to hamper the rescue effort.

“For that reason, the diving efforts must be temporarily stopped. We’ll try to deploy an ROV [remotely-operated underwater vehicle],” he said.

He said the fifth major part of the plane, located early on Sunday, was about 10 meters by one meter.

The search, focused on a patch of sea southwest of Pangkalan Bun, a town on Kalimantan, has also been extended east because parts of the plane may have been swept by currents, Bamabang said.

The relief operation has prioritized finding the bodies of those on board the ill-fated flight, of whom 155 were Indonesian, with three South Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one Briton and a Frenchman — co-pilot Remi Plesel.

Indonesian pilot Setiawan, who is part of the aerial recovery effort combing the search area from above, told local television channel MetroTV that he had seen another three bodies floating in the sea early Sunday.

AirAsia investigated

Indonesia has pledged to investigate flight violations by AirAsia, saying the ill-fated aircraft had been flying on an unauthorised schedule when it crashed. The airline has now been suspended from flying the Surabaya–Singapore route.

But the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said it had granted permission for the airline’s Sunday flight.

It was unclear how the airline, a unit of Malaysia-based AirAsia, had been able to fly without the necessary authorization from its starting point.

The company has declined to comment until the probe is complete, but said it would “fully cooperate” with the government.

Before take-off, the pilot of Flight 8501 had asked for permission to fly at a higher altitude to avoid the storm, but the request was not approved due to other planes above him on the popular route, according to AirNav, Indonesia’s air traffic control.

In his last communication, Captain Iriyanto, an experienced former air force pilot, said he wanted to change course to avoid the menacing storm system. Then all contact was lost, about 40 minutes after the plane had taken off.

The families of victims have been preparing funerals as the bodies recovered are identified in Surabaya, where a crisis center has been set up at a police hospital with facilities to store 150 bodies.

About 100 grieving Catholic relatives and well–wishers, some of them in tears, crowded into a small church in the police headquarters for a memorial mass Saturday afternoon, singing hymns and praying for the victims to be found quickly.

“We are trying to cope as hard as we can but it is still a very difficult time for our family as we are still waiting for news,” said 25-year-old Sebastian Joseph Widodo, whose sister Florentina was on the plane.

“My faith is very central, especially at this time where there’s nothing much we can do,” he added.

Agence France-Presse

Flood waters down, but city still on alert

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite clear weather and receding waters on Saturday, the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency says Jakarta resident should brace for more floods before the end of the month.

The agency has predicted cloudy skies and heavy, prolonged rainfall in the coming weeks.

"The rains we had recently were caused by a weather pattern called the Madden-Julian oscillation, which increases the possibility of massive rains that may last from three up to four days," the agency's head of research and development, Mezak Arnold Ratag, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The pattern, he said, usually affects weather in a region from 30 to 40 days.

Mezak said that flooding could also occur due to rainfall in upstream areas such as Bogor and Depok.

"In such cases, Jakarta would be heavily flooded again because the excess water would flow into the city," he said.

Mezak said the city would have been in a better situation this month if it had prepared its drainage system earlier.

The Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center said that the number of flooded areas had dropped from 140 to 27 by Saturday.

Many people have returned to the houses they left to the waters on Friday.

Residents of Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta, which was inundated up to 1.5 meters deep in parts on Friday, have begun cleaning up their homes.

Mohammad Harris, a Kampung Pulo community unit chief, said that they were still ready for more floods.

"We are still on alert as it is the time of the year where the big floods come," he said.

Some areas of the city are still underwater.

Rawa Buaya of West Jakarta, suffered heavy flooding after the rain had stopped because the water level in the Angke River had risen and burst its banks.

A resident, Sriyono, said he had not been prepared for the floods.

"The water starts to rise quickly on Saturday morning," he said, adding that it was high as an adult's stomach on Friday.

The Sedyatmo toll road, the main link between the city and the international airport, was still flooded 50 cm deep on Saturday.

A lack of public transportation to the city meant many arrivals were left stranded at the airport, while passengers on their way there struggled to find alternative roads.

"We won't allow sedans or any low-level vehicles to cross the toll road," said Adj.Sr. Comr. Mujiana was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

Thousands of people were left stranded by floods that affected 14 percent of the city's 267 subdistricts on Friday.

Water inundated main thoroughfares, railways and the runway of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. More than 3,000 residents were forced to leave their homes.

The Health Ministry's Crisis Management Center recorded at least three people dead on Friday due to drowning, while the Greater Jakarta division of state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api recorded Rp 550 million (US$57,894) of losses due to travel delays and railway deterioration.(anw/ewd)

Alternative routes to Soekarno-Hatta international airport

Route 1:

Jakarta-Merak toll road, exit at Karawaci toll gate--Jl Imam Bonjol--T-intersection at Jl Merdeka--Jl Otto Iskandardinata--Jl Aipda.K.S.Tubun--Jl Marsekal Suryadarma--airport main gate

Route 2:

Jl Ki Sama'un--Jl.K.S.Tubun--turn right to Jl Sungai Cisadane Pintu 10--airport main gate

Route 3:

Jl Daan Mogot--Jl. Halim Perdanakusuma--Jl Husein Sastranegara--airport main gate

Source: The Jakarta Post

Let's manage garbage to combat flooding

Enri Damanhuri, Bandung, The Jakarta Post

A major flood threatens Jakarta. At least that is what was implied by the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), which predicted that a high tide of up to 2.2 meters will affect northern Jakarta within the next few weeks, with the worst affected areas expected to be Penjaringan and Pluit. High levels of precipitation could also cause floods of up to half a meter deep in Cawang, Cakung, Jatinegara, Pancoran and Rawa Jati (Kompas, Dec. 5).

This is concerning, at least for us Jakartans and other residents of coastal areas. One problem that has not yet been solved is how to manage our garbage to avoid flooding. Now we have to add high tides to the list of threats.

The easiest answer to the question as to what causes the floods nowadays is the dramatic impact of global warming affecting all parts of the world. The floods are caused by bad weather and storms, and the melting ice is affecting the flow of water, leading to deluges.

However, we may have forgotten another reason that needs to be addressed: the intensive coastal reclamation work in North Jakarta was one of the cause of the floods from Ancol to Kapuk Naga at the end of November.

We may wonder about the floods in the U.S. or UK due to Hurricane Katrina or the heavy rains that caused the big rivers of Europe to overflow. Countries that are well-developed in terms of surface water management, through well-prepared drainage systems, pumps and control dams, in addition to proper waste management, where it is rare to find garbage plugging up the system, still have to deal with the problem.

Surely the rising waters will wreak havoc in developing countries, that are still only introducing such technology, as in Indonesia.

Floods do not just transport water. They contain bacteria, germs and domestic waste. It's no secret that the floodwaters also contain dangerous substances, such as hazardous chemical waste.

We face many problems in handling floods in Jakarta: from preventing the floods and reducing their impacts, to appraising and repairing the damage after the floods so as to prevent them from happening again.

There needs to be legal consequences for those who cause losses and causalities, whether intentionally or otherwise. The Environmental Management Law (No. 23/1997), which makes pollution a criminal offense, needs to be used as a point of reference by the authorities so as to discourage those who do not respect the environment and contribute to its destruction by either purposely mismanaging or carelessly managing waste.

When faced with flooding, people are normally most concerned about saving themselves and their material and productive assets. But what about the dangerous waste that can pollute the water and leech into the ground? This is especially worrying given the number of both large and small industries located in north Jakarta.

There needs to be strict law enforcement by the environmental authorities and related institutions to control how industrial waste is managed so as to avoid people falling sick or dying because they come into contact with dangerous chemicals during the floods.

The stakeholders, all of us, need to take a stand to reduce the impact of improper waste management, and the international forum on climate change in Bali is the perfect opportunity for Indonesia to take action and think about how improper waste management, domestic and industrial, has contributed to polluting our environment.

In order to affect a change in mentality and behavior among the Indonesian people, routine and ongoing socialization of good environmental practices and strict law enforcement of environmental regulations are necessary. The government, as one of the main stakeholders, needs to fulfill its role as the main agent of change by widely distributing information to the public and corporations about the importance of proper waste management, especially for industry-generated hazardous waste.

Let us not forget that waste management, especially urban waste that consists mainly of organic carbon substances, is a significant contributor to greenhouse emissions, especially since waste management systems in Indonesian landfills (TPAs) create methane gases that are improperly managed.

It is commonly known that the greenhouse effect of methane gas is 21 times worse than that of CO2. Of course, this does not mean that we have to blindly apply the values or emission factors provided by experts from developed countries. It requires systematic mapping to explain how proper waste management can serve as one of the important contributors to the effort to reduce greenhouse emissions in Indonesia.

From a management aspect, a program to reduce greenhouse emissions needs to start with the basics; the implementation of the 3-Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). This program can be socialized among garbage and industrial waste generators through discussion panels to formulate rules of conduct involving all relevant parties.

At least there will be a symbiosis of mutualism; both horizontally and vertically. More importantly, municipalities and industry players need to start managing their waste properly. When they realize that the hazardous waste generated by companies in their areas requires professional handling, according to the environmental rules and regulations, they will come to realize that they need to delegate this task to professional companies that specialize in industrial waste management.

As waste management is their core business, they will have the facilities and capabilities needed to ensure that the waste will be properly managed and will not damage the environment. To quote the old saying, "We should leave it to the experts." It's still not too late for this.

The writer is a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He can be reached at e_damanhuri@ftsl.itb.c.id

Residents unprepared for early floods

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite warnings of possible imminent major flooding from the Meteorology and Geophysics Bureau (BMG), few subdistrict administrations have prepared contingency plans or warned residents of the danger.

Authorities in flood-prone Manggarai in South Jakarta said they had yet to intensify activities in anticipation of the floods.

"One of our dinghies is currently being repaired so we only have one that works," head of the subdistrict youth organization Karang Taruna, Boedi Vincent, said.

Karang Taruna organized members to help residents during Jakarta's last major floods.

"We have not done much to prepare yet," another member of the organization, Budi, said, "but I think we will hold a meeting about it soon."

Sumini who has lived on Jl. Manggarai Utara I since 1981, several hundred meters from Karang Taruna's office, said she was not aware of imminent flooding.

She said no one had warned her before the previous floods, nor had she received any help from district officials in the aftermath.

The last major floods in early February this year inundated 70 percent of the city and claimed the lives of 48 people.

Roni, a resident of Bukit Duri in South Jakarta, which was heavily affected in the same floods, said he was not given any warnings.

"Residents usually observe the height of the Ciliwung River early in the year when floods usually occur. I don't think people have done this yet because we have never seen floods at the end of the year," Roni, whose two-story house was submerged in February's floods, said.

"We usually start (monitoring the river) in December to for the next year's floods which usually come either in January or February ... the height of Ciliwung River is normal now," a flood emergency worker in Bukit Duri, Suryanto, said.

Haryoko, a flood emergency worker in Cipinang, East Jakarta, said he would organize a meeting to discuss floods next week.

"Many residents were taking their Idul Fitri holiday over the last two weeks, so we couldn't organize it earlier," he said.

Haryoko's own home is usually flooded several times a year.

BMG last month warned that eastern Jakarta, including Cipinang and Cipayung, would be worst affected in the coming floods.

The city administration has prepared 3,500 staff from search and rescue teams, the Indonesian Red Cross, the police and the military to evacuate residents.

Jakarta's public works agency has begun dredging rivers and fixing blocked sewers in preparation for the flood season.

The state electricity company has also taken precautionary measures to protect substations in several areas which were affected in the previous floods.

"It will be one and half meters ... presently it is only half a meter (off the ground)," a worker at an electricity substation in Manggarai said.

High rises unaffected by quakes: BMG

Mustaqim Adamrah and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said Thursday the earthquake and aftershocks that rattled western Sumatra on Wednesday would not affect buildings in the capital.

"All buildings and infrastructure in Jakarta have been designed to adapt to quakes," earthquake division head Suhardjono said at the agency's headquarters.

The epicenter of Wednesday's 7.9-Richter-scale earthquake was some 100 kilometers southwest of the capital of Bengkulu and at a depth of about 15 kilometers.

Bystanders on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, reportedly saw office buildings sway during the quake.

The Jakarta disaster coordinating task force head, Bobby Aryono, said the unit had not received any reports of damaged buildings as of Thursday afternoon.

Suhardjono said the buildings and infrastructure were designed to sway according to the movement created by an earthquake and thus were safe from it.

"So, Jakartans should not have panicked or been hysterical. Moreover, the epicenter was far (from the capital). It would have been another story if the epicenter were nearby," he said.

However, geotechnical engineering researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences Adrin Tohari said that Jakarta's northern coastal area was vulnerable to liquefaction during earthquakes as it sat on unsolid soil.

Liquefaction makes the ground lose its ability to support structures.

"It would ruin buildings and blow up pipelines planted below the surface. The reclamation areas on the northern coastline are prone to liquefaction," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Adrin made the prediction based on his research on the impact of an earthquake on liquefaction risks in Bengkulu.

The research, carried out in July, found that an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale that hit Bengkulu in 2000 caused land subsidence of between 20 centimeters to 30 cm in coastal areas.

"The composition of Bengkulu's coastal areas is mostly cohesion-less sands and clay similar to Jakarta's northern coastal zone," he said.

Houses in coastal areas of Bengkulu collapsed in the 2000 earthquake.

The Jakarta administration is reclaiming a 32-kilometer stretch of northern coastline to add about 2,700 hectares of land to the city.

The land will be used for industrial parks, hotels, office buildings and upscale accommodation for up to 1.19 million residents.

The BMG recorded three aftershocks in Sumatra on Wednesday and Thursday and issued a tsunami warning.

Suhardjono said that the quake and its aftershocks resulted from clashes and friction between the Indo-Australian tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate.

Govt declares emergency response status for Bengkulu and Padang

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government has declared an emergency response status for Bengkulu and Padang respectively for a week and three days following quakes that had rattled the two regions on Wednesday and Thursday.

The decision to that effect was made at a limited cabinet meeting chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Halim Perdanakusuma air force base here on Thursday evening.

In the meeting which was also attended by Vice President Jusuf Kalla and a number of cabinet ministers it was reported that 10 people had so far been found killed in the disaster, namely six in Bengkulu and four in West Sumatra.

At a press conference after the meeting President Yudhoyono said he had told heads of the regions rocked by the quake who happened to be out of town or abroad to immediately return home to direct emergency response efforts.

"As aftershocks still continued, he called on residents in affected areas to remain alert. They must be in full alert while continuing their emergency response efforts and must not panic as operating procedures for dealing with natural disasters are already in place and trainings in dealing with disasters were about to be started," he said.

On the occasion the President also offered his condolences to the families and relatives of the quake victims and called for immediate attention to the injured.

He said although the tremors were quite strong, reports and results of inspections in the quake-ridden areas said the damage caused to the two affected regions was minimum, including the number of deaths.

He praised the people who had learnt a lesson from the quakes and tsunami in Aceh in 2004. "I heard that the local governments` response to the disaster and the swiftness of the people in seeking safety have been better. This deserves an appreciation. The results are good," he said.

In spite of the fact he said that the government would contine to improve the system of disaster handling including logistics supply, so that any disaster could be handled quickly by local governments and the central government would only help in case of a huge disaster.

Information minister Muhammad Nuh meanwhile said two islands namely Mentawai and Muko-Muko still remained isolated after the quake and telephone lines there had also been cut off so that the real situation in the areas was still not known.

Bengkulu quake detected in five minutes only

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) managed to detect the tectonic quake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale which rocked Bengkulu on Wednesday in five minutes only, the agency said.

"We managed to obtain the data on the epicenter of the quake in a relatively short time. Only in five minutes, after which we could release the information," Dr P.J. Prih Harjadi, BMG Deputy for Data and Information Systems said when contacted from Jakarta on Thursday.

He said the speed of detection depended on the magnitude of the quake.

"If the magnitude is high, many BMG seismographic stations in different parts of the country will be able to catch the signals, so that within three or four minutes information can be sent to BMG head office," Prih said.

"The ability of BMG stations to detect quakes in a relatively short time is an improvement," he said.

In the past, BMG stations were only equipped with apparatuses and devices to record the vibrations, but now they have instruments to detect the speed and magnitude of a quake to predict tsunami, he said.

Compared to data from the US Geological Survey Institution (USGS), the BMG stations in Indonesia are much quicker than the USGS which could release the result of its detection in ten minutes.

The death toll of the powerful earthquake that rocked the southern coast of Sumatra island on Wednesday evening has reached nine by Thursday afternoon.

"Six people were killed in Bengkulu and three in West Sumatra," Deputy Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Coordination Board Thabrani said.

The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 also left 43 people injured, 23 of them serious, he said.

In Bengkulu which bore the brunt of Wednesday`s earthquake, at least 32 houses were levelled to the ground and 335 others seriously damaged, he said.

VP thankful early warning system proved beneficial in Bengkulu quake

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has expressed gratitude for the fact that people in coastal areas had benefited from existing early warning systems when a powerful earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale rattled Bengkulu and West Sumatra provinces on Wednesday evening.

"The public`s awareness about unpredicted disasters has improved. When the earthquake struck, people in coastal areas immediately fled their homes to escape a possible ensuing tsunami. Therefore, I am thankful that the early warning systems worked," Kalla said in his capacity as chairman of the National Coordinating Board for Refugee and Natural Disaster Mitigation here on Thursday.

He said the small number of fatalities in the powerful earthquake which hit Bengkulu and Jambi on Wednesday proved that the people had already become aware of the advantages of having early warning systems.

"There are two measures that we should take in the future. The first is we have to prepare people to face disasters, the second is train them continually while preparing the logistics and medical supplies when we are in emergency situations," Kalla said.

He said people should also improve the structures and foundations of their houses in order to be able to survive earthquakes.

Kalla said the government had already made examples and prescribed good standards of quake-resistant buildings, although it would take time for people to follow them.

On the occasion, the vice president also expressed his gratitude to the media which had continued to warn the people against the possible occurrence of tsunami.

"My sincere gratitude also goes to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) which has accurately warned the people of impending disaster," Kalla said, adding that he was also thankful that only minor damage was done by Wednesday`s earthquake.

President calls for emergency measures in handling Bengkulu quake aftermath

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on a national support to emergency measures of coping with the aftermath of the quake which hit Bengkulu with a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale on Wednesday at 18:10 local time.

"The president has instructed the people`s welfare coordinating minister, the military (TNI) chief, the national police chief and his subordinates to prepare emergency measures of providing humanitarian aid to the quake victims," presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng said here on Wednesday evening.

Andi said that the president is constantly monitoring the situation in Bengkulu either through the governor of the province and the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

"The president received information from the field on the quake which had killed one person when a building collapsed. To handle the victims killed and injured in the disaster, the president called for a quick handling of the victims," Andi said.

According to him, the president had yet to decide whether to visit the quake-stricken region for a close look at the aftermath of the disaster, especially the victims.

The president had also instructed some ministers to immediately monitor the aftermath of the quake and provide humanitarian aid to the victims.

In the meantime, the Indonesian Air Force has prepared two of its giant cargo aircraft Hercules C 130 to help cope with the strong earthquake measured at 7,9 on the Richter Scale which hit Bengkulu on Wednesday evening.

"We have yet to decide on the departure of the aircraft, but we have already prepared some of them," Operations Chief of the Halim Perdanakusumah airbase Flight Colonel Gutomo said here Wednesday night.

"We are still waiting for instructions and relief aid to be flown to Bengkulu and to some other cities which had also been damaged by the strong tremor," Gutomo said.

A spokesman for the Sriwijaya Military Command, Lt Col Nurdin, said that he was still awaiting detailed reports on the post-quake situation in Padang, West Sumatra.

"Contact between us and security personnel in the field is still cut off due to disrupted telephone lines," he said.

However, his side had taken the necessary anticipative measures of preparing emergency tents and a field hospital for the quake-ridden area.

The tremor`s epicenter was located 159 kilometers northwest of Bengkulu 4.67 degrees south latitude and 101.13 degrees east longitude. It struck at 6:10 p.m West Indonesian Time so violently that residents in Padang, Palembang, Lampung, and even part of Jakarta also felt it.

Organda, weather agency recruited for transportation safety campaign

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Transportation Ministry says it will include the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) and the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) in its land and sea transportation safety campaign.

"Our program now involves suppressing the number of transportation accidents over all modes of transportation," said Transportation Minister Jusman S. Djamal on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media after a meeting with House legislators on transportation affairs, Jusman said the ministry would collaborate with Organda in managing land transportation.

"Stricter monitoring of the implementation of transportation regulations will have to be applied. We don't want a bus to endanger the lives of people because it has no brakes or runs with slippery tires," the minister said, referring to a fatal bus accident last Saturday.

The brakes on the speeding bus carrying school children in Cianjur regency, West Java, failed before the vehicle careered off a bridge, killing 16.

"Although it hasn't been reported much in the media, there have been many efforts from (the ministry) to improve land transportation safety. In many areas, we also collaborate with the police," Jusman said.

Efforts to improve land transportation safety have included a focus on qualitative rather than quantitative credentials in selecting shuttle bus operators for routes to and from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Qualitative criteria for the upcoming airport route tender include the ability to provide good, cheap services to passengers and pass gas emission and vehicle age tests.

Jusman added that monitoring adherence to safety measures by sea transportation operators is easier than for land transportation operators as harbor captains watch over operations at sea.

"To improve sea transportation, we will collaborate with BMG for morning weather warnings. If there are huge waves of about four to six meters high, the agency will report to us in the morning," he said.

Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) chairman Bambang Susantono told The Jakarta Post that collaboration with other organizations in gathering secondary data was normal practice in foreign governments.

"Data from other sources is important to prevent accidents from occurring," he said.

Bambang said accident prevention, or "active safety measures", can be difficult to orchestrate because they often involve multiple organizations. "The first step to take is to identify possible aspects of accidents before constructing such prevention methods."

The transportation society believes that the long-term goal of active safety should be balanced with short-term passive safety goals. The challenge, according to MTI, is in coordination and organizational management itself.

Forestry ministry extends contract to use air police's choppers

JAKARTA (Antara): The Forestry Ministry has extendedits contract with the Air Police for the use of helicopters to deal with forest fires this year.

The two agreed to extend the contract which expired on July 4, the ministry's director general of forest protection and nature conservation, Arman Malolongan, said Wednesday.

The ministry was operating two helicopters to detect hot spots, he said.

Quoting the latest report, he said fire was ravaging 15 hectares of plantation owned by PT Siak Raya in Riau province.

"I have instructed (my subordinates) to look into the fire. The management of the company must be held responsible for the fire," he said.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has reported an increase in the number of forest fires in Simatra in the past week.

The agency's head of data and information in Polonia, Firman, said that based on images from the Satellite National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 254 fires were seen in Sumatra on Monday, compared to 141 a day earlier.

LIPI ready to meet radar demand

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) says it has met specifications set by the Indonesian Navy after successfully develop maritime radars.

The institute announced Monday that it had successfully developed maritime radar technology in collaboration with the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. The radar is able to detect any object entering Indonesian territorial waters.

"The Defense Ministry has ordered three maritime radars with a coverage of about 35 nautical miles each," said LIPI's radar project head researcher Mashury Wahab on Thursday.

Mashury, who attended a two-day radar seminar at LIPI headquarters, said the Navy required a radar with a minimum coverage of 20 nautical miles.

The institute said, however, that further research is still required to meet specifications set by the Air Force.

"Usually, it takes about six months to build a radar after the order is placed. The manufacturing time for each unit for an institution may also vary as a radar is usually ordered for customization," he said.

"Military and civil radars, such as for the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), have different characteristics and specifications."

As for the Air Force, Mashury said LIPI was already planning to develop a more sophisticated radar system.

"Our partner from the Technical University of Delft is optimistic that we could develop the radar, as they have enough expertise."

Local engineers, he said, were already able to repair foreign radars used by the Air Force.

The Air Force, which currently uses radars imported from the U.K. and France, said it would use domestically-produced radars developed by LIPI provided they have a coverage of 250 nautical miles.

It is estimated that the cost of using domestically-produced radars is one-tenth the cost of using imported radars.

Umar Anggara Jenie, LIPI's chairman, told The Jakarta Post that the further development and implementation of domestically-produced radars would have to occur in phases.

"We should first apply the currently available technology before reaching the next level," he said.

"A leap in such technology, such as in the enlargement of the radar's radius, cannot be achieved without using the currently available technology first."

Mashury insisted the advancement of local radar technology should be balanced with the establishment of a supporting organization.

"Indonesia needs a national radar organization as a means of communication between related institutions. It'll become a forum for exchanging ideas and to collaborate in research," he said.

He proposed that the organization should consist of highly-ranked officials, such as government ministers dealing with defense, research and technology affairs, chairpersons of LIPI, BMG and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, as well as representatives from state airport operators PT Angkasa Pura I and II.

Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Adang Suwandi Ahmad, said that prior to reaching the manufacturing stage, radars should be subject to testing and certification phases.

"Then we also need supporting industries such as the state-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia," he said.

Provinces 'better prepared' for disaster than Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Several provinces are better prepared to deal with natural disasters than Jakarta, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said Friday.

"There are six provincial administrations that are the most concerned with weather changes as well as natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis," agency head Sri Woro B. Harijono said during a meeting with members of the Regional Representatives Council.

She said the provinces of West Sumatra, Lampung, Banten, Central Java, Maluku and Gorontalo were all well prepared for any disaster.

"For instance, Gorontalo provincial administration was the first to request the agency install a server to detect earthquakes and tsunamis," Sri told reporters.

The server is equipped with software that will automatically alert local citizens with sirens whenever an earthquake is detected.

The Gorontalo administration, she said, paid to have one installed in the middle of last year. West Sumatra then followed suit.

"Meanwhile, Central Java and Lampung have provided, respectively, a building for a climatology monitoring station and a plot of land for a weather radar tower," she said.

The Jakarta administration, however, is notable only for its lack of action, she said.

"The Jakarta administration has yet to take such action as the other six provinces," Sri said.

"May be the administration thinks that the city is not on the continental plate that might cause earthquakes and tsunamis," she added.

She said that her agency had sent a prediction for torrential rain to the administration on Feb. 1 at 00:20 a.m., a day before the floods hit Jakarta.

"Concerned institutions that receive data sent by the agency should take follow-up action," Sri said.

The Jakarta Public Works Agency's water resources development division said it had acted after receiving the forecast.

"We disseminated the information to related institutions. We also began operating flood posts for victims, shortly after we received the information," the head of the division, I Gede Nyoman Soewandi, told The Jakarta Post.

"We did not, however, predict that the heavy rain would cause this much damage," he added.

So far the flooding in Greater Jakarta has killed 54 people, forced at least 340,000 from their homes, and left more than 200,000 homeless.

Prih Harjadi, deputy for data systems and information at the BMG, said the dissemination of such information needed to be comprehensive and support public awareness and preparedness for natural disasters.

"Sophisticated technology to disseminate information swiftly will not be useful should the people be unaware and unprepared," said Prih.

"Local administrations should also take part in increasing public awareness and preparedness for natural disasters. The administrations should make a plan to help residents evacuate when a natural disaster occurs," he added.

Japan Brings Weather Research to Indonesia

Wednesday, 07 February, 2007 | 16:21 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Agency for the Assessment & Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Japan Marine Science & Technology Center (JAMSTEC) are cooperating in atmosphere dynamics research by installing various weather radars in the Indonesias region.

The research, which is called Hydrometeorological Array for Intraseasonal Variation Monsoon Automonitoring (HARIMAU), is aimed at improving weather forecast techniques so that rains that cause flooding, like what is happening currently, can be better anticipated.

In a workshop introducing HARIMAU yesterday (6/2), Professor Manabu Yamanaka from JAMSTEC said the radars that will be installed can monitor winds in a radius of up to 300 kilometers.

The radar that will be installed in Serpong, for example, will be able to monitor the realtime wind map in Jakarta, Bogor, Bekasi and Tangerang.

Yamanaka said that the six radars, comprising X and C-band Doppler Radars and also Wind Profiler Radars, in many locations in Indonesia cannot work independently.

“They must be combined with radars and weather stations belonging to BMG (the Meteorology & Geophysics Agency),” he said.

In addition to monitoring weather anomalies like what is currently happening in Jakarta, HARIMAU can also produce information that can also be used for other interests such as sowing periods, transportation and air pollution.

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Indonesian Weather Agency Expects More Jakarta Rain

By Arijit Ghosh and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Jakarta, where 40 percent of the city is below sea level, may receive more rainfall, the Meteorology Agency said, even as Indonesian authorities were taking advantage of the first respite in three days to evacuate 42,000 people from flooded areas.

Jakarta may also suffer if areas such as Bogor, south of the capital, get more heavy rain, said Wasito Hadi, head of data and information at the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency. Rivers from the mountains of southern Java drain into Jakarta and may overflow their banks. Two days of heavy rain has already inundated much of the city. Jakarta received about 339 millimeters (13.6 inches) of rainfall yesterday, Hadi said.

``We are in the peak rainfall season, which extends from the middle of January to the middle of February,'' Hadi said today in a telephone interview in Jakarta. ``If Bogor has rainfall, it's a problem for Jakarta.''

The Ciomas and Puncak areas in Bogor, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Jakarta, have had heavy rainfall since this morning, ElShinta radio said. The water level in the Ciliwung- Katulampa dam has reached 2.5 meters and started to overflow, the radio said. It may reach Jakarta in the next 10 hours, the radio cited Andi, an official at the dam, as saying.

With 13 rivers flowing into the city of 8 million people, excess rain causes flooding almost every year because Jakarta's only flood canal hasn't enough capacity to handle the runoff. Floods in 2002 resulted in $1.1 billion of damage to property and in lost man-hours, according to Dutch company DHV.

`Not Qualified to Be Capital'

``Jakarta is geographically not qualified to be the capital city, but this is the reality,'' Sutiyoso, Jakarta's governor, said in an interview on Metro TV. ``We can't afford to move the capital city somewhere else.''

The government has debated building a second flood canal for the eastern part of the city, which was originally planned during the 1970s.

``If we don't build the east flood canal, one alternative is to build big lakes in the neighboring area,'' said Sutiyoso, who uses one name.

The government estimates an east flood canal would cost about 4.4 trillion rupiah ($440 million). It would complement the west flood canal, which was built by the Dutch in 1930.

The government is using the break in rainfall to evacuate people, Jakarta government spokesman Arie Budhiman said.

``We hope the weather is better today,'' Budhiman said today in a telephone interview. ``With no rain, the government'' can move faster to help people.

Roads, Power Supply

Some toll roads displayed signs that they were closed because stretches of the highways were submerged. Motorists were forced to use lanes dedicated to TransJakarta Busway on the city's main Sudirman road.

State electricity utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara said it had cut power to 1,680 electricity distribution boxes in areas that are under water, affecting as many as 800,000 homes, Mulyo Adji, general manager of supply and control at Listrik Negara, said in an interview on ElShinta radio today. The utility switched off power to prevent short circuits and deaths by electrocution.

Floods yesterday forced PT Bank Central Asia, the nation's second-biggest lender by assets, to close several branches, said Raymon Yonarto, the bank's corporate secretary.

About 70,000 telephone lines may have been cut as rising water damaged a central switch in the Semanggi area in Jakarta, Muhammad Awaluddin, spokesman at PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the nation's biggest phone company, said yesterday.

Telekomunikasi's Internet service has also been disrupted, as the company turned off several data servers to prevent damage, Awaluddin said, without specifying how many users may have lost their connections.