Ten Thousand Indonesian Islands Remain Unnamed

TERRADAILY

Section of the named Indonesian archipelago. 10 000 more to go

by Staff Writers
Jakarta (AFP) June 11, 2007
Indonesia needs at least three more years to name more than 10,000 of its islands, a senior official said Monday, warning that the lack of names left people at risk in case of disasters. Alex Retraubun, director of small islands' empowerment at the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs ministry, said a recent ministry survey had found that more than 60 percent of Indonesia's 17,504 islands still did not have names.

The failure to name the islands could leave Indonesians on about 5,000 of them at risk if natural disasters were to hit, he said.

"If (the islands) were hit by a tsunami or earthquake, it would be difficult to bring immediate relief to the areas as they are not known and officially registered by the state," Retraubun told AFP.

Indonesia's vast archipelago straddles the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where continental plates meet and cause frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

The official added that the survey had also found that 24 islets have been wiped from Indonesia's map.

"Three of them were in Aceh and disappeared after the (2004 Indian Ocean) tsunami hit the province... The rest disappeared due to erosion and sand mining," he said.

The 2004 tsunami killed more than 168,000 people in Aceh alone. Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the disaster.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Email This Article

TERRADAILY

NASA Scientist Finds A New Way To The Center Of The Earth

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 12, 2007
Humans have yet to see Earth's center, as did the characters in Jules Verne's science fiction classic, "Journey to the Center of the Earth." But a new NASA study proposes a novel technique to pinpoint more precisely the location of Earth's center of mass and how it moves through space.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT Locals Block Work At Indonesian Mud Volcano Steel Dam Plan To Plug Indonesian Mud Volcano Chinese Space Agency Joins The International Charter Space And Major Disasters LSU And Los Alamos Team Up To Improve Evacuation Plans	CLIMATE SCIENCE New Oak Ridge Theory Aims To Explain Recent Temperature And Climate Extremes Push-Button Climate Modeling Now Available Climate Groups Cool On G8 Deal But US Turnabout Hailed Major Developing Nations Lukewarm On G8 Climate Goals
EARTH OBSERVATION NASA Satellites Watch as China Constructs Giant Dam Kalam Calls For Development Of Satellite Systems For Entire Humanity Boeing Launches Italian Earth Observation Satellite Envisat Captures First Image Of Sargassum From Space	ENERGY TECH Spanish Fenosa To Invest In Latin American Renewables Rosneft To Invest A Billion Dollars ln New Fleet To Tap Far East Shelf Oil Deposits Extreme Environment Biology Research May Help Solve Lignocellulosic Ethanol Puzzle Prairie Cordgrass For Cellulosic Ethanol Production
EPIDEMICS Bono And Geldof blast G8 AIDS Pledge Farce US Firm To Trial Bird Flu Vaccine In Indonesia And Hong Kong Avian Influenza Survivor Antibodies Effective At Neutralising H5N1 Strain System To Pinpoint Airline Passengers Who Contaminate Cabins	FLORA AND FAUNA CT Scan Reveals Ancient Long-Necked Gliding Reptile Study Shows Lizard Moms Dress Their Children For Success Phosphate Does A Body Good New Collaborative Research Reveals Chimpanzees Can Sustain Multiple-Tradition Cultures
FROTH AND BUBBLE Chinese Premier Wants Action On Taihu Lake Pollution US Loses Landmark Supreme Court Environmental Case Big Blue Goes Big Green In India Hong Kong Red Tide Spreads	ABOUT US Experts Say Catastrophes Ruin Your Sleep Self-Healing Materials Can Mimic Human Skin Healing Again And Again Upright Walking May Have Begun In The Trees Amazon Tribesman Takes Rainforest Message To Japan

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement