Gov’t Continues to Raise Public Awareness of Natural Disasters
Head of the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) Doni Monardo. Photo by: PR of Cabinet Secretariat/Oji
Indonesia is one of the 35 countries most prone to natural disasters in the world, Head of the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) Doni Monardo has said.
“Every day at least nine disasters occur, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, forest and land fires, floods, flash floods, landslides, and whirlwinds,” Doni said at the 2021 National Coordination Meeting on Disaster Management, Wednesday (03/03) at the State Palace, Jakarta.
He also said that the BNPB continues to raise public awareness of natural disasters, in line with the directives of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the previous year’s National Coordination Meeting on Disaster Management.
“All Government agencies, the Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI), the Indonesian National Police (Polri), and Regional governments must work hand in hand to carry out various prevention, mitigation and preparation measures. The development plan should be based on disaster risk reduction and should be made by involving experts to predict threats, strengthen early warning systems, compile contingency plans, and provide disaster education and training,” Doni said, quoting the President’s directives.
He added that the BNPB continued to carry out all of the President’s directives in a sustainable manner by prioritizing the pentahelix cooperation approach.
On that occasion, Doni also said that currently Indonesia is also struggling to overcome COVID-19 pandemic that has occurred since March last year. The one-year momentum of this pandemic is an opportunity to evaluate the handling efforts that have been made and continue to make improvements to overcome existing deficiencies.
“We must be optimistic that all the policies made by the President as head of state and head of government will overcome health and economic problems in Indonesia” he said. (DND/UN) (RI/MMB)
