Keep Christmas And New Year 2024, BPBD Throughout Indonesia Performs 5 Disaster Emergency Alert Stages

Head of BNPB Lt. Gen. Suharyanto chaired a national preparedness coordination meeting to face the disaster for the Christmas and New Year 2024 period, Thursday 21 December. (Between/HO-BNPB)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lt. Gen. Suharyanto instructed all BPBDs throughout the country to immediately implement five stages of emergency alert for floods and landslides during the 2023 Christmas and Land Longsor 2024 holidays.

Suharyanto conveyed that considering that several areas in Indonesia have the potential to experience moderate to high rain intensity during the current wet season.

The first BNPB Head Instruction to BPBD is to immediately carry out preparedness by involving all elements of the Forkompimda and volunteers. This activity aims to check the completeness of equipment, personnel, and budget in dealing with potential wet hydrometeorological disasters.

Furthermore, Suharyanto instructed BPBDs, especially those in areas with the potential for annual wet hydrometeorological disasters, to immediately anticipate and issue an Emergency Alert Decree (SK) so that preparedness efforts before the disaster occurs can be optimized.

"If a disaster has occurred, immediately establish an Emergency Response status, but we can anticipate it before the disaster occurs. For this reason, areas that are predicted to experience a wet hydrometeorolgi disaster can issue an emergency alert letter", he said while chairing the National Preparedness Coordination Meeting for Facing Disasters for the Christmas and New Year 2024 Period in his statement, Thursday, December 21, was confiscated by Antara.

In this regard, Suharyanto gave an example of the experience of handling dry hydrometeorological disasters, such as forest and land fires (karhutla) as well as drought. With the issuance of a Drought Emergency Alert Decree from the local government, the government through BNPB can immediately deploy assistance in the form of assistance, equipment and other assistance.

As a result, drought and forest fires in 2023 are relatively more under control than in previous years.

Suharyanto also encouraged local governments through BPBD to apply for support for tools, devices, and budgets to BNPB. This is important so that if at any time a disaster occurs, emergency handling will be ready and can be carried out immediately. The application file for assistance and budget can be submitted to the Head of BNPB no later than Friday (22/12) at 16.00 WIB.

"Please BPBD to apply for emergency alert assistance such as equipment and even budget. For flood preparation, you can apply for a pump or rubber boat or fiberglass boat, if possible tomorrow it will enter."

Finally, the Head of BNPB instructed the local government regarding the operation of mitigation and preparedness of hydrometeorological disasters, including strengthening embankments and slopes, deepening channels, preparing the basic logistics of refugees and others.

"I am sure that by the end of this year the supply of logistics for disaster management has been running low, therefore we will hold this meeting so that Kalaksa can immediately calculate the needs in the event of floods, landslides, and extreme weather in each region".

To areas that experience hydrometeorological disasters every year such as floods and landslides, Suharyanto asked local governments to arrange command posts, prepare operational plans, and deploy equipment.