60 Percent Of A Million Population In Padang Are In The Tsunami Red Zone, City Government Gives Education To Be Alert

Assistant I to the Padang City Government, Edy Hasymi. (Antara/HO- Padang City Government)

PADANG - The Padang City Government continues to provide disaster education to residents in the tsunami red zone as an effort to minimize casualties if a disaster occurs.

"The city of Padang is located on the shores of the Indian Ocean, Padang is a disaster-prone area. We hope that all residents have good knowledge when dealing with disasters," said Assistant I Padang City Regional Secretariat (Setdako) Edy Hasymi in Padang, quoted from Antara, Monday, July 25 during the village alert activity. 2022 disaster.

According to him, of the one million residents of Padang City, 60 percent of them are in the tsunami red zone. So that these residents must be equipped with education to deal with disasters.

"Skills and understanding in dealing with disasters must be possessed by everyone. Because residents who do not have the skills when a disaster occurs will be the first victims," he said.

He conveyed that so far, the Padang City Government has indeed been educating the public. "In fact, Padang City is expected to become a disaster smart city. However, the education provided to the community was stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Edy hopes that education in dealing with disasters can be provided by the kelurahan to all residents. Therefore, he wants all officials in the kelurahan and the community to understand the education or knowledge about disaster provided by resource persons in the 2022 Disaster Preparedness Village activity.

"Thus the knowledge gained is then given to all residents," he said.

The 2022 Disaster Preparedness Village activity was attended by five sub-districts, followed by the lurah and his working apparatus including the local community to educate on disasters from a number of sources.

The five villages are Berok Nipah, Purus, Lubuk Buaya, Gates, and West Freshwater, all of which are located on the coast.

Plt Kalaksa Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Padang Arfian said that one of the objectives of this activity was to be carried out in a participatory manner to build community preparedness.

"This includes protecting people living in disaster-prone areas," he said.

Previously, earthquake expert Dr. Badrul Mustafa assessed that individual capacity was one of the keys for a person to survive the earthquake and tsunami disaster.

"Individual capacity in question is a person's understanding of a disaster so that he knows what to do when the earthquake and tsunami occur," he said.

He gave an example of people who had a good understanding of earthquakes and tsunamis before a disaster occurred, already understanding what the signs are and what to do if a disaster strikes.

"So if it's in a prone area, the individual's capacity includes understanding what an earthquake-friendly and standardized building looks like," he said.

Then the individual's capacity must be transmitted to the environment so that all parties will synergize with each other to save each other.