Facing Year-End Disaster Potential, Vice President Ma'ruf Issues Alert Warning To Regional Governments

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin asked all regional governments to be prepared for potential disasters by the end of the year. Based on the forecasts of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), high-intensity rainfall will occur earlier.

"The local government is preparing to anticipate, mitigate, so that it doesn't happen later when we face sudden events, but is prepared earlier because this is a disaster that always comes every year," said Vice President Ma'ruf to reporters at the North Sumatra Governor's Office House, Medan, Sumatra. North was reported by Antara, Wednesday, November 17.

Apart from climate factors, Ma'ruf Amin assessed that the disaster occurred because of environmental damage. Local governments must be able to anticipate this so that the impact when a disaster occurs is not too big.

"Disasters are always there, situations are impossible to avoid and what we hope is how to minimize the impact of disasters on the community, for example they have to evacuate and be better prepared in what kind of house so that they are not flooded, for example, then moved to a higher area," he said.

The former chairman of the MUI said that he had asked the local government to allocate sufficient budget for disaster management.

"When there are casualties and I also ask the Minister of Social Affairs to anticipate flood-affected areas as early as possible and the regions also budget for disaster management funds and many things must be done," he concluded.