Landslide In Cianjur, West Java

Another devastating landslide has occurred in West Java, following Ciwidey landslide that were happened 18 days before. The landslide occurred at Kampung Ciawi Tali, Cianjur, West Java Province on Thursday, 11 March 2010 at 6.30 pm. Seven people were confirmed dead and four others still buried under the debris and subject for search and rescue. At least 20 houses and school damaged and 100 people have been evacuated.

The prominent factors of landslide in Indonesia are lithology and morphology. Highly weathered material can be easily found in Indonesia. If it occurred on the steep morphology and water penetrate into the material, it will weaken the slope and increase the potential of mass movement as it cross the threshold. The increasing of precipitation rate during the late monsoon season should raise alert of the potential similar hazard near in the future. People living on unstable areas should be warned, prepared and trained to face it. A map of the susceptible-to-landslide area are available for most of Indonesian region (low resolution of the West Java image can be found here), that the government, from high to low level should be familiarize themselves with this map and socialized it to the people in the area. As published before in this website, applying a simple-low cost early warning system could be considered to reduce the causalities of landslide at high susceptible area, if relocation is not possible.