Learning From Cianjur, Standard Homes To Hold Earthquake-Entrance Requirements For IMB

Photo via BNPB

Dean of the Faculty of Geography UGM Yogyakarta, Danang Sri Hadmoko, asked the government to ensure that every building, including residents' houses, has construction that is earthquake-resistant.

"Actually, earthquake-resistant houses don't have to be expensive. The important thing is that the construction is correct, the building is correct. There are many technical instructions according to what was issued by the Ministry of PUPR," said Danang, Tuesday, November 29.

The government should include safe building standards, including from earthquake shocks in building permits (IMB), which now turns into building approval (PBG).

However, unlike government-owned buildings, most IMB management for residents' houses is not followed by an audit, so the building structure required is likely not to be obeyed.

"There is no supervision and audit," said the researcher at the UGM Disaster Study Center as quoted by Antara.

According to Danang, controlling the standard of building safe houses needs to be a concern for the government considering that Indonesia is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire area, so it is prone to earthquakes.

When an earthquake occurs, the potential for damage does not only hit houses in areas through which active faults pass, but depends on the quality of the buildings and the surrounding rock material.

"For example, the earthquake in Yogyakarta (2006) was an earthquake in the Opak Sesar, yes, but many houses in the Sleman area also collapsed," he said.

Learning from the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that destroyed tens of thousands of houses in Cianjur, West Java, according to him, it is time for the public to realize the importance of building earthquake-resistant houses even though it slightly costs additional costs, because it involves the safety of life.

"Which is cheaper when we build it really cheap, but when it collapses we build it again," he said.

In addition to ensuring building standards, according to him, foremans and builders in various regions also need to receive training and certification.

"Certification for repairmen, foremanes need training, for example related to iron connections, iron sizes and others, it is very necessary," said Danang.

Chairman of DPD Real Estate Indonesia (REI) DIY Ilham Muhammad Nur claims the construction of houses built by its member developers has met safe standards, including from earthquake shocks.

He dared to guarantee because the developers of REI DIY members needed to get PBG from the DIY Regional Government before starting to build housing.

"If (PBG) is approved, it means that the house we will build has followed what is desired as a building that is constructionally safe from the earthquake," said Ilham.