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Friday, 29 October, 2010 | 21:42 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The government has said that theMentawai Archipelago does not need a tsunami warning detector because the tsunami wave could hit much faster than the signal.

Ade Edward, the West Sumatra Provincial Disaster Management Agency chief in charge of Operational Control, said the epicenter is only 80 kilometers away from Mentawai western coast, and the tsunami could hit the island within 5 to 15 minutes.

“We don’t have such early warning system technology yet,” Ade said yesterday.

“The tsunami in Mentawai is the fastest in the world,” Ade said.

Subandono Diposaptono, the Maritime and Fishery Ministry’s Coastal Director said in Mentawai, the early tsunami warning system that relies on technology is irrelevant.

“The key is local wisdom. If there is a hard earthquake, people must immediately go to the hills,” he said.

However, Prih Harjadi, the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency deputy in Geophysics, said many people were killed because there is not any tsunami warning siren in the archipelago.

“Aceh and West Sumatra are the only ones with such siren,” he said in Jakarta.

The government did not disseminate knowledge on tsunami equally to Mentawai residents.

Joskamtir, the North-South Pagai sub-district Field Coordination chief, said only the people in the sub-district received information concerning the dangers of tsunami.

Meanwhile, there was barely any information for the people living along the Indian Ocean.

As a consequence, many people in some villages in Mentawai were not aware of the danger following the earthquake on Monday night.

Up until 17.00PM yesterday, the Disaster Management Emergency Post in Sikakap recorded 347 people were killed and 332 people were missing during the incident.