Public Awareness Needs To Be Improved For Indonesia's Disaster Resilient

Illustration of the impact of a disaster (Photo: between)

JAKARTA - Indonesia is seen as necessary to increase awareness related to potential disasters in building a resilient Indonesia against disasters.

"This is related to how we are able to increase awareness, both to existing institutions and communities, especially in areas that are at risk of planning," said Professor of the Environmental Health Department of the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia (UI) Prof. Bambang Wispriyono quoting Antara.

The increase in awareness, he continued, is important to do, especially considering the geographical location of Indonesia in the Ring of Fire area or the Pacific Fire Circle which is at risk of facing disasters. Thus, Indonesia's existence in the Ring of Fire has resulted in people needing readiness to face various disasters, ranging from earthquakes, tsunamis, to volcanic eruptions.

"Because Indonesia is in the Ring of Fire, almost all areas are at risk of disaster," he said.

Next, Bambang also said that in terms of government in building a disaster-resilient Indonesia, integration and commitment from all relevant institutions, such as the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) and Basarnas, are needed to present appropriate disaster prevention, preparedness, and handling.

In the webinar with the theme "Reduce Disaster Risk through Government and Governance", Bambang also conveyed a number of other challenges that Indonesia needs to overcome in building resilience to deal with disasters. Among them are limited anti-disaster infrastructure and health aspect capacity.

"Health aspects are a concern of how friends in health, including environmental health, are able to develop governance, good disaster management," he said.

In addition, he continued, there are also challenges related to disaster mitigation readiness. Bambang assessed that so far Indonesia tends to focus on handling and taking action against the impacts of disasters.