JAKARTA - The Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Suharyanto, stated that strengthening the structures of houses and residential buildings that are not earthquake-resistant is one of the necessary preparedness measures to face potential disasters.
"What we really need to remember and strengthen are the millions or hundreds of thousands of houses currently standing that are not earthquake-resistant," Suharyanto said at the 3rd International Conference on Disaster Mitigation and Management (ICIDMM) 2025 at Andalas University, Padang, on Monday, as reported by Antara.
He emphasized this by reflecting on the earthquake that struck Padang City 16 years ago, where most of the houses and residential buildings were severely damaged due to non-seismic structures.
Of the approximately 300,000 houses affected, 135,000 were severely damaged by the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck on September 30, 2009.
"Around 80 percent of the 135,000 houses that were severely damaged were due to their structures not being earthquake-resistant," he said.
He concluded that building collapses during earthquakes were primarily related to failure to meet earthquake-resistant standards. Therefore, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) requested that governors, mayors, regents, and relevant stakeholders pay attention to this issue.
"The national and regional budgets are indeed limited, but perhaps improvements can be made gradually and continuously," he explained.
He also asked relevant parties to learn from the Cianjur earthquake, which was not as strong, measuring 5.6 in magnitude, but destroyed up to 90,000 homes, 37 percent of which were schools.
"For your information, in Jakarta, buildings above seven stories are earthquake-resistant. But buildings below that are not," he said.
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