So far the province has only one siren which was built late last year at Waihaong sub-district in Nusaniwe district, Ambon city, but it was not enough for the entire province which is prone to tectonic earthquake.
"With more than 1,300 islands and 92 percent of the total area is made up of sea, Maluku is an earthquake-prone province that needs more tsunami warning sirens in a number of its districts," local regional disaster management body (BPBD) spokesman Kilfy Wakanno said here on Wednesday.
Maluku is the meeting place of two tectonic plates namely Indo Australia and Euroasia plates at Banda sea until Southeast Maluku waters.
Therefore Kilfy said the limitation of tsunami warning siren has been coordinated with Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to get additional devices.
"The impact of devastating tsunami in Japan which also threatening North Maluku, Papua, and North Sulawesi should be a special consideration for central BMKG to provide Maluku and other quake prone areas with more tsunami warning sirens," Kilfy said.
Meanwhile, head of Ambon BMKG information and data, Irwan Slamet, admitted that Maluku still had lack of tsunami detection devices.
"We still have incomplete earthquake and tsunami detection devices," Irwan said here on Wednesday.(*)
O001/HAJM
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
