Two weeks after an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck Indonesia, the death toll has reached over 6,200, while thousands more have sustained serious injuries and lost their homes.
The earthquake hit early on Saturday May 29 and the area to suffer the worst was the southern coast of Indonesia’s largest island, Java. The region is near Mount Merapi, Java’s most active volcano, which has been spewing ash and lava for a number of weeks and seismologists fear may still pose a hazard.
Believed by many locals to be a warning from God, some villagers have performed religious rituals to ward off an eruption.
Yogyakarta, the former capital – known as a cultural Mecca of Indonesia – was the city worst affected by the earthquake, but it was the more isolated villages in the region that had few, if any, medical resources, which were aid workers’ initial concern.
In the early stages, aid was slow to arrive due to the poor transport system and widespread destruction.
Although the clear-up operation is now making progress, the UN insists that relieving hospitals of patients and providing medical supplies remains a high priority.
Charlie Higgins, the humanitarian co-ordinator, said: “Most of the hospitals are functioning, but are overloaded. There is a lack of space in the hospitals.
“It’s getting out the basic medical supplies to the hospitals that is important.”
However, the UN has stated that a full recovery programme will span at least six months and cost up to $100m (£78m), half of which would be spent on new housing.
This natural disaster follows the devastating tsunami of December 2004, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and an approximately 8.5 magnitude quake that occurred off Sumatra in March 2005.
The hundreds of islands that make up Indonesia sit upon the seam of two tectonic plates – the Australian and Indian plates – making it a volatile location.
Since the tsunami, a number of scientists have attempted to develop a more effective early detection system.
Although considerable headway has been made, a survey carried out by the US Geological Society (USGS) – which reports that there were 90,000 earthquake casualties worldwide in 2005 – suggests a solution needs to be reached and implemented soon.
Kerry Sieh, a Professor of Geology at the Californian Institute of Technology, recommends: “For most… (danger) zones, a $1m Global Positioning System would be adequate.
“This is a small price to pay to assess the level of hazard and to monitor subduction zones with the potential to produce [another] calamity.”
