Entering The Transition Of The Season To Rain, Banjarnegara BPBD Installs Landslide Early Detection Devices In Prone Areas

Banjarnegara Regency BPBD officers explained to residents how the newly installed/ANTARA "Elwasi" landslide early warning tool works

BANJARNEGARA - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Banjarnegara Regency, Central Java, has begun to prepare measures to anticipate landslides in line with the arrival of the transition period from the dry season to the rainy season. In the last few days, BPBD has installed 17 EWS equipment or Early Warning Systems in locations prone to landslides. "Like today in two villages, namely Sinduaji, Pandanarum District, and Asinan, Kalibening District," said Head of Emergency and Logistics Division of BPBD Banjarnegara Regency Andri Sulistyo in Banjarnegara, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, September 20. According to him, his party has so far installed an EWS tool called Elwasi in 11 villages prone to high-category landslides, so there are still six tools that will soon be installed in other villages. Elwasi, which stands for Eling Waspada Lan Siaga (Remember Alert and Alert), is an early detection tool for the ground movement made by a staff of the Banjarnegara BPBD Prevention and Preparedness Section, Sudarsono. "This name means that all parties remember that they are in disaster-prone areas, so vigilance is needed and must remain alert in reducing disaster risk," he explained. Furthermore, he said the high-category landslide-prone villages installed by Elwasi had formed a Disaster Resilient Village (Destana) as a capacity strengthening in dealing with the threat of disaster in the rainy season in 2023-2024. Prior to the installation of Elwasi, he said, his party had conducted surveys, socialization, and provided training to the local community. According to him, the Elwasi tool installed in villages prone to landslides is connected to the Banjarnegara Regency BPBD Operations Control Center (Pusdalops) and will provide notifications through the WhatsApp messaging application to the public. "This means that this tool also provides warnings through sirens, voices, and WhatsApp as a warning," he said. Andri said the 17 Elwasi tools were the result of the 2023 procurement to replace a number of damaged EWS equipment. Previously, he said, the number of EWS equipment installed in a number of Banjarnegara areas reached 15 units and now all of them have died. "The dead EWS equipment is assistance from outside parties and the price is quite expensive. Currently only one is still alive, namely Elwasi which was installed in Sirongge Village, so this year BPBD installed 17 Elwasi units as a result of procurement in 2023," he explained. Regarding the distribution of clean water assistance for residents affected by drought, he said that until now it was still ongoing even though the rain began to fall in the northern region of Banjarnegara along with the arrival of the transition period from the dry season to the rainy season. However, he said, the rain that fell was not evenly distributed because it was still sporadic with a maximum bulk of 10 millimeters and a short duration, so it had not had a significant impact on increasing water availability. "Based on the recapitulation until Tuesday (19/9), BPBD Banjarnegara Regency has distributed 1,471,100 liters of clean water for 18,044 families or 65,977 people spread across 26 villages and 6 sub-districts in 11 sub-districts," he said. On a separate occasion, the Head of the Technician Group of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) of the Tunggul Wulung Cilacap Meteorology Agency, Teguh Wardoyo, predicted that the southern part of Central Java and Central Java's central mountains had entered the beginning of the transition from the dry season to the rainy season.

In fact, he said, a number of areas in the central mountains of Central Java covering most of Wonosobo Regency, parts of Banjarnegara, parts of Purbalingga, parts of Pekalongan, parts of Batang, a small part of Pemalang, a small part of Kendal, and a small part of Temanggung are predicted to enter the beginning of the rainy season early, namely on the basis (10 days, ed.) first October.