Reflection on 19 years of the Aceh Tsunami Progress or Regression?

As a disaster-prone area, Indonesia, especially the Aceh region, should have high safety standards, so that casualties can be minimized when disasters occur.

But this is not the case. In Aceh, earthquakes occur very frequently. In 2016 a, the Mata Ie Geophysical Station in Banda Aceh recorded 1807 earthquakes that occurred in Aceh and an increase in the number of earthquakes in 2022 to 1138 .

The frequent occurrence of earthquakes in Aceh has caused Acehnese people to get used to it and consider it a part of life, so that Acehnese people generally take it for granted, when an earthquake occurs, wait for the earthquake to subside and then return to their normal activities.

This is also why many people lost their lives when the earthquake and tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004, in addition to being accustomed to earthquakes and lacking knowledge about tsunamis.

Post-tsunami, Aceh became the focus of global attention in reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. The Indonesian government, along with international organizations, worked hard to rebuild infrastructure, schools and hospitals and help the people of Aceh recover from the trauma. Over time, although leaving deep scars in the memory and history of its people, Aceh managed to bounce back.

The Aceh tsunami also triggered a change in the approach to disaster mitigation around the world. Awareness is the most importance of early warning systems and community preparation for natural disasters has increased. Countries are now focusing more on developing infrastructure capable of dealing with earthquake and tsunami threats. Likewise, the role of technology and geographic information systems (GIS) is becoming increasingly important in disaster monitoring and mitigation.

Development in areas that have been affected by tsunamis should consider the estimated time of arrival of tsunami waves in the evacuation process so that areas that have been affected by tsunamis and have a very severe impact, such as areas that are coastal, seafront are not built buildings, public facilities that trigger crowds such as markets and mosques.

Aceh's Development Now

It seems that Aceh's leaders have forgotten about the tsunami that occurred 19 years ago, and only remember it as a formality by holding dhikr and prayers together every December 26, but the existing development is only concerned with beauty, economic effects, without thinking about disaster mitigation.

Quoting the words of the Head of the Geotechnology Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Eko Yulianto, he estimated that tsunamis in Indonesia occur every 1.3 years.

Past tsunami events should be an early warning for future tsunami events. In the last 15 years on average

In the last 15 years, tsunamis have occurred every two years on average. However, in every place tsunamis usually recur every few tens or hundreds of years.

Perhaps the leaders in Aceh think very positively, the tsunami in Aceh will be repeated in a hundred years or a thousand years, so they are very brave to take the risk of relocating Peunayong Market, in a large coastal area with complete facilities under the pretext of increasing the economic growth of coastal communities, supporting the PPS Kutaraja area development program and making Peunayong a heritage area and water front city.

The entire community is encouraged to shop at Al-Mahirah Market to advance the economy, Al-Mahirah Market will also be one of the new tourist destinations for residents or domestic and foreign tourists.

Enjoying the natural beauty of the coastal area and religious tourism by visiting the Syiah Kuala Tomb which is located not far from the integrated market.

This is of course a dilemma in itself. If you remember the safety aspect. Disaster mitigation is often not considered, with 21 tsunami detection devices or buoys no longer operating in various parts of Indonesia including Aceh since 2012.

Buoys support data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to make tsunami early warnings, without buoys BMKG estimates tsunami potential based on modeling methods.

While the community can only surrender to the situation and shop in disaster-prone areas by sticking to the principle, anywhere when it's time will definitely die.

The tsunami has long passed, but not learning from history is highly risk. Development in Aceh should continue to be evaluated and based on disaster mitigation for mutual comfort, security and safety.

(Khairiah, UNSYIAH architectural engineering alumni, citizen journalist, part of Buku Tulis ESG)