The construction of public facilities such as hospitals and schools should use rubber buffers to withstand tremors that occur during earthquakes to help minimize damage and casualties, a conference has concluded.
The International Rubber Research and Development Board (IRRDB) conference was held at the Salak Hotel in Bogor on Tuesday.
"The conference is aimed at creating architectural awareness, emphasizing the fact that there is a way to protect public facilities like hospitals and schools," Abdul Azis S.A. Kadir, secretary-general to the IRRDB, told reporters.
He said the construction of public facilities could use components called natural rubber seismic bearings to minimize damage and save people's lives during earthquakes. He said such construction techniques had been applied in the United States and Japan and would be suitable for Indonesia, where earthquakes are fairly common.
Abdul, a Malaysian national, said he hoped that Indonesia, the world's biggest rubber producer, could use its assets to produce rubber buffers for constructing buildings.
"A hotel building in Medan is being built using rubber buffers, which is a good development. We hope to see more buildings that are built using rubber buffers," he said.
He said prototypes of two earthquake-proof housing units in Pelabuhan Ratu in Sukabumi, West Java and China could withstand 8-magnitude earthquakes. He said the weight of the rubber buffers would depend on the size of the building.
Meanwhile, Chairil Anwar, the director of the Rubber Research Center, said an earthquake-proof house that was built in Pelabuhan Ratu in Sukabumi in 1994, was a model replica of an earthquake-proof house which was developed in the US.
He said the house in Sukabumi used 14 rubber buffers that were placed in the building's foundations.
Chairil added that only a few buildings in Indonesia used the technique, including some in Sumatra.
The large earthquake that rocked Padang and surrounding areas in West Sumatra on Sept. 30 has raised questions regarding how buildings in Indonesia, on the ever-volatile Ring of Fire, should be made safer.
Indonesian experts said that three of the most important factors to consider before constructing a building was the stability of the soil, a symmetrical design and the use of lightweight materials.
Many buildings in Padang could not withstand the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that rocked the area.
According to data from the disaster management coordination unit, over 30,000 houses were badly damaged, over 26,000 others were moderately damaged and over 32,000 were lightly damaged.
Public facilities including places of worship and hundreds of classrooms also sustained extensive damage due to the devastating earthquake.
- JP/Theresia Sufa
