Head of Mentawai DPRD Criticizes BMG
Monday, 10 March, 2008 | 14:02 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Padang: Kortanius Sabeleakek, Head of the Mentawai Regional House of Representatives (DPRD), has criticized the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) for its information about the position of an episentrum (earthquake center point).

The earthquake was centered near the Mentawai archipelago, while the BMG said it was a long way from Muko-muko, Bengkulu, Jambi, Sungai Penuh, or Padang.

As a result, people including provincial and central government officials paid less attention to the small islands of Pagai, Sipora and Siberut in the Mentawai archipelago while in fact these small islands were the nearest islands to the earthquake center point and suffered the worst casualties.

“If even Mentawai is akready a regency, there are sub-districts as large as Mukomuko. But because it is not mentioned as being near Sikakap or Tuapejat, people forget Mentawai although the largest number of victims was here. Thus the aid distribution was late,” said Kortanius on Monday (10/3).

Sumarso, Head of the Padang Panjang BMG, said that BMG always gives the coordinate points of every earthquake by stating the distance of episentrum from the location of monitoring devices. For example from Padang, Pariaman, Muko-muko, Bengkulu, and Sungai Penuh.

“I have also received complaints from the Mentawai regional government. Mentawai is a new regency, and we have recommended central BMG to calculate the coordinate points by mentioning the name of an area in Mentawai,” said Sumarso.

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