The head of the BNPB's Disaster Data, Information, and Communication Center, Abdul Muhari, on Tuesday said that Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its complex geographical elements, which require strong building construction.
However, the specifications of earthquake-resistant houses require a large budget, which is beyond the capabilities of people in suburban areas. They usually spend no more than Rp50 million (USD3 thousand) on building a house.
"Therefore, the earthquake-resistant house should be affordable and doable for the general public without the involvement of construction experts," Muhari added.
His party is offering additional galvanized wire mesh to coat house walls as a solution.
BNPB confirmed that this construction method had been tested in Japan and proven effective for simple houses of the 3x6 meter type.
The cost of affordable raw materials, based on domestic price standards, is estimated to be only around Rp1.5 million–Rp2 million (USD95–USD127) per house, Muhari disclosed.
According to him, the method is quite realistic for Indonesia, with the number of low-income and extremely poor people recorded at 26.5 million based on 2021 data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS).
He said that this method can be financed using village funds.
His party considers this solution to be very crucial in view of the number of houses damaged and fatalities recorded in every earthquake, based on BNPB's data, over the last three years.
In 2021, BNPB recorded 37,422 damaged houses and 122 fatalities due to earthquakes. In 2022, the number of homes increased to 68,644 with 638 fatalities. Meanwhile, in 2023, the number of damaged homes reached 4,704 and fatalities were recorded at 6.
Muhari said that such preventive efforts can reduce the number of victims and lower the rehabilitation-reconstruction budget spent by the BNPB following disasters, which has so far reached Rp15 million–Rp60 million (USD1,000-3,800) per house.
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Translator: M. Riezko Bima, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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