Jakarta, Oct 29 (ANTARA) - Although the meteorology and geophysics agency has predicted that rainfall in the current October-November and December rainy season will be normal, the government must continue to prepare contingency plans to deal with potential natural disasters. Due to its geographical location and climate, Indonesia hosts different areas which are prone to natural disasters, such as floods and landslides during the rainy season, apart from other disasters which continue to pose threats, such as volcano eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides.
Indeed, the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare said that geographically, Indonesia was a meeting place for tectonic plates from the Asian and Australian continents, as well as those plates from the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Australian plate long ago moved northward and under the Eurasian plate. The zone can be traced from the northern tip of Sumatra until the Nusa Tenggara Islands, creating deep submarine trenches. Most earthquakes concentrate in this zone where plates lay atop each other.
This also triggered the formation of a volcanic range from Sumatra, Java to Nusa Tenggara. Eastern Indonesia is also sitting upon a series of Pacific plates that move southwesterly under the Eurasian plates. This creates the formation of volcanoes in North Sulawesi, Sangihe and Halmahera.
The Minister said that almost all Indonesian regions were prone to natural disasters because the country sits on what was called the ring of fire. The ring of fire stretched from the most western region of Aceh province to a number of eastern regions in Indonesia, such as Maluku province.
He added that besides having 128 active volcanoes, Indonesia also has at least 150 rivers that flow through densely populated areas.
Further, the head of the Information Center of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said that the presence of the ring of fire causes Indonesia to have its high potential for disasters, such as eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and landslides.
"Flash floods in Wasior, Papua, which killed over 100 people several years ago, showed that almost half of the hill slid down and clogged the river flow upstream," he said.
He noted that the same thing took place in Maluku when a landslide occurred, forming a huge dam on the hilly areas, requiring the local government to remove it.
Based on the Indonesia Disaster Risk Index (IDRI), there are 396 high-risk disaster areas across the country. "Of the 494 disaster-prone areas in Indonesia, 396 are in the high-risk category," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during the opening of the 5th Asian ministerial meeting on disaster mitigation in Yogyakarta last week.
Therefore, President Yudhoyono urged local communities to be "better equipped to handle natural disasters".
To help communities better prepare for floods, earthquakes and tsunamis, a new hazard impact modeling tool, the Indonesia scenario assessment for emergencies (InaSAFE), was launched on Wednesday last week.
Developed by Indonesia and Australia, together with the World Bank-Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, InaSAFE will assist villages, towns and cities in Indonesia to become more resilient to natural disasters.
"Indonesia is one of the world's most disaster prone countries. We can't stop natural hazards from happening, but we can help people better prepare for them," said the deputy for disaster reduction and preparedness from Indonesia's Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Dodi Ruswandi.
Available to anyone with basic computer skills, InaSAFE asks users a series of questions about a potential disaster scenario, then produces maps and reports estimating the potential damage caused to people and infrastructure.
"It is very difficult to prepare for a disaster without knowing who will be impacted and what will be damaged," said the co-director of the Australian Government funded Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction, Matt Hayne.
In an effort to involve communities in participating during natural disasters, a new search and rescue organization called 'Rajawali Search and Rescue Nusantara' (RSN) was also launched on Sunday.
During the soft launch, RSN general chairman Risky Sadig expressed hope that local communities would also take part in the search and rescue operations when a disaster occurs.
"We should not rely only on the existing bodies in searching and rescuing for victims when an air, sea or land transportation accident takes place. The communities should be awakened to make their contribution," Risky said.
After all, Indonesia is prone to different disasters that are related to its geographical location and climate.
The impact of climate change has also caused disasters in some regions. For example, a tropical cyclone recently caused floods and landslides in Gorontalo, Ambon, Padang, Southeast Aceh and other regions in August.
Therefore, the environment ministry conducted a campaign to prevent floods and landslides in disaster-prone areas prior to the rainy season. "We conducted this campaign for those local governments whose regions are included in the list of disaster-prone areas," Hermono Sigit, the Deputy Assistant of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems Damage Control of the Environment Ministry, said.
The preventive measures included dredging ditches along rivers and fixing clogged drainage systems or rivers, especially in water logging-prone areas, as well as providing trash containers and regular transport systems around riverbanks, since most people living around rivers dispose of waste in the water.
"The local government has to directly track disaster-prone areas," Sigit added.
For the handling of disasters throughout the country, the government set aside emergency funds that could be used any time. The earmarking of the funds is based upon Government Regulation No.44/2012 on emergency funds.
The emergency funds will be taken from the state budget and allocated to regions hit by a natural disaster.
For 2013, the government earmarked Rp2 trillion for assisting with natural disasters. The funds will, among others, be used to increase the number of early warning systems and mitigation efforts in areas prone to disasters.
Head of the Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Board (BNPB), Syamsul Maarif, said the plan to increase the number of early warning systems was part of the government¿s tsunami handling master plan 2012- 2017.
The master plan aims to connect the chain of early warning systems and to increase the public¿s understanding of the devices, such as sirens, evacuation lanes and shelters.***3***
(T.A014/A/KR-BSR/A/H-YH) 29-10-2012 17:44 |
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