Lombok Further Quake Reminders

IT IS NOT MUCH more than a year and a half since the Pidie earthquake in Aceh province in December 2016.

- Scott Younger

This invoked a comment from me (FI, Jan 2017) about the need to carry out an inventory at regional government level of old civic and commercial buildings in the many earthquake zones of the archipelago. The recent several devastating events in and around the island of Lombok, preceded by the rumblings of Mt Agung in Bali, still ongoing after one year with its associated earthquakes, are again a reminder that attention has to be paid to structures, most of which are not designed to withstand strong earthquakes.

There has to be a systematic effort carried through by local government to undertake a structural inventory and either strengthen through retrofitting or, if more appropriate, replace vulnerable, sometimes venerable buildings. The behavior and impact of earthquakes and the technological solutions to withstand or at least minimize damage to structures are well understood and have to be taken into account for the design and construction of new urban developments.