West Sulawesi Has Hydrometeorological Disaster Emergency Status Until March 30, 2024

Illustration. BMKG officers appointed a weather satellite image monitor while monitoring weather forecasts. (Between)

SULBAR - The Provincial Government (Pemrov) of West Sulawesi (Sulbar) has set a hydrometeorological disaster emergency status in its area. This status is enforced until March 30, 2024.

"The West Sulawesi Provincial Government has stipulated a Hydrometeorological Disaster Emergency Alert Decree since August 30, 2023 and is valid until March 30, 2024," said Head of the West Sulawesi Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Amir Maricar in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Friday, September 8, confiscated by Antara.

Amir said the West Sulawesi Provincial Government had taken steps to anticipate the possibility of a disaster, one of which was through the establishment of a task force for the readiness to establish a disaster alert post in West Sulawesi.

"This status can at any time change to see the disaster situation in West Sulawesi. If there are frequent disasters, we will increase this status from an emergency alert to an emergency response," explained Amir Maricar.

Meanwhile, Acting Governor of West Sulawesi Zudan Arif Fakrulloh said he had asked local governments in six districts to prepare disaster preparedness programs.

He explained, based on the value of the Indonesian Disaster Risk Index (IRBI), West Sulawesi Province was ranked first as the province with the highest level of disaster risk from all provinces in Indonesia, with a score of 166.49 in 2020, then 164.85 in 2021 and 165.23 in 2022.

"The value of the risk index at the provincial level is the average of the value of the district risk index. In the risk index, the level of disaster is assessed based on the preparation component, namely the danger, vulnerability and capacity of the government in dealing with disasters," Zudan explained.

The Acting Governor also asked district governments throughout West Sulawesi to cooperate in efforts to reduce the value of the disaster risk index by increasing programs or activities related to reducing vulnerability and/or increasing capacity.

In addition, the Acting Governor added, district governments are also required to have a Regional Regulation (Perda) on the Implementation of Disaster Management, Disaster Management Plan Documents (RPB), Contingency Plans (Renkon) and Disaster Emergency Management Control System (SKPDB).

In addition, forming a Disaster Risk Reduction Forum (FPRB), activating Operations Control Centers (Pusdalops), forming a TRC (OPD Rapid Response Team), and filling out an IKD report (Regional Resilience Index) and then reporting it to BNPB by BPBD every year.