"The quake-resistant building construction is already provided for in the law, government regulation and regional government regulations," Secretary General of the Public Works Ministry Agoes Widjanarko said here on Wednesday.
Unlike in Japan where buildings were able to tolerate quakes up to 10 on the Richter scale, buildings in Indonesia`s quake-prone areas were only able to resist quakes with a magnitude of below 10, he said.
"The government divides the Indonesian territory into (several) quake zones so the buildings set up must be adjusted to the magnitude of quakes in each of the zones," he said.
The policy was aimed at using construction cost as efficiently as possible, he said.
"If the magnitude of quakes in a certain area only reaches up to 3 on the Richter scale, why should the buildings there be designed to tolerate quakes up to 8 on the Richter scale," he said.
He said buildings set up in the epicenter of quakes would definitely be destroyed now matter how strong they were.
"Yet the damage will not be so serious that their occupants still have a chance to escape the quake," he said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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