Early Warning System West Sumatra Cold Lava Flood Needs To Be Installed In 23 Points

Flood Do Galado Disaster In Agam Regency, West Sumatra (doc. BNPB)

JAKARTA - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) proposed strengthening and monitoring related to early warnings of floods and landslides around Mount Marapi.

This is proposed as a design for an effective early warning system (EWS) on the potential for rain lava or galodo floods based on the disaster experience that occurred in mid-May.

Head of Padang Panjang Geophysics Station, Suaidi Ahadi, said that 23 EWS installation points were needed for the Agam, Tanah Datar, and Padang Panjang Regencies that surroundd the river's upstream slides to Mount Marapi.

"Hopefully, if the 23 river EWS points are installed, an early warning community will forever be built and evacuate from the nagari," said Suaidi in his statement, Sunday, May 26.

The EWS model that is being designed by the BMKG team is a community-based early warning system. The concept is the installation of river monitoring tools using radar that can monitor the level of river water.

This is based on the results of river monitoring in areas affected by galodos that have the type of intermittent river. This type of river has a water flow depending on the season, namely that in the rainy season the water is abundant and in the dry water dry season. This intermittent river has very extreme fluctuations between seasons.

In simple terms, the way EWS works is to confirm the early warning issued by BMKG from weather and soil vibrations.

"If the EWS alarm then reads, the disaster preparedness community owned by the wali nagari around Gunungapi Marapi can immediately coordinate to carry out independent evacuations," explained Suaidi.

Meanwhile, Head of Disaster Data and Communication Center for the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Abdul Muhari followed up on the proposal by conducting a survey of the location of the EWS installation point.

"The BMKG proposal will be discussed in more detail with PVMBG and other proposals submitted by academics to BNPB so that the EWS equipment built will actually be able to answer information needs at the community level," he explained.