Project News

On September 30, 2009, the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Indian Ocean, off the coast of Padang, the West Sumatra province at 5:16 p.m. (Western Indonesia Time). The areas of Padang city, Pariaman city, Padang Pariaman District, etc. were enormously damaged by this earthquake, such as collapse of many buildings/private homes, numerous occurrences of flank collapse in mountain-ringed region.

In response to this, from October 2nd through the 5th, five members including Director of Sabo Technical Centre, Ministry of Public Works, and the specialists of JICA carried out the field investigation to grasp the situation of occurrence of sediment disasters by the earthquake, etc. The field investigation was carried out mainly in Padang city and Padang Pariaman District where severely damaged.

As a result, it was confirmed that flank collapse/landslide occurred often, especially in Patamuan, Padang Pariaman District. In Tandike village, the landslides occurred at three places became mudslides, which were confluent downstream. Moreover, large volume of unstable sediment created by landslides became deposited at slope and mountain streams.    

It is not easy to grasp damaged conditions, because the roads in mountain-ringed region were blocked in every place by landslides and transmission facilities were damaged as well. To endeavor to grasp complete projection of sediment disasters at an early point will contribute to appropriate and precise countermeasures of recovery/restoration.

Photo: The landslide occurred in Tandike village