Dispar Says Rio Lampung Beach Manager Lalai Follows Tourists' Death In The Waves

Illustrations - Rio Beach by the Beach is full of visitors. (ANTARA/Riadi Gunawan)

The Tourism Office (Dispar) of South Lampung Regency said that the management of Rio Beach by the Beach, located in Kalianda District, was negligent in terms of monitoring visitors.

Head of Dispar South Lampung Kurnia Oktaviani said, due to lack of supervision, one of the visitors died because he was dragged by the waves on the beach.

"From the monitoring of our team, there are indeed several points that must be met by the Rio Beach manager, such as making the viewing tower in that place even higher, because those that already exist are not the standard for viewing towers that should be on the beach. We urge the manager to create a viewing tower according to existing standards," he said.

He also explained that there were several points in the local government circular regarding the management of tourist attractions on the local beach that had not been fulfilled.

"Before this incident, we had indeed given a circular directly, regarding the appeal for prohibition that must be fulfilled by the tourism management, if I'm not mistaken, it is in the third point regarding the prohibition of visitors from swimming on the beach which is indeed dangerous to swim," he said.

According to him, the circular distributed to tourism business actors is at point 3, namely putting up a warning is prohibited from bathing on the beach seen by visitors.

"The negligence of the Rio Beach manager is not to make warning boards prohibited from swimming on the beach which visitors can clearly see," he said.

Kurnia also said that the management had made a warning board but the visitors could not see it.

"The warning board has indeed been installed, but visitors are not visible. So, if it is not seen, visitors think that this beach is allowed to swim or take a bath," he said.

He added that the South Lampung Tourism Office has not yet sanctioned the beach manager because it will confirm directly with them.

"Until now there has been no sanction, because I am still out of town and want to meet directly with the coast manager, to find out what this incident is like, I will also ask several visitors there what their experience was at the tourist attraction. Then the victims' friends. After that, we will review, at this time there is no sanction yet," said Kurnia.

Therefore, he said, based on a temporary inspection of his party who had been to the scene, he would ask the coast manager to immediately fulfill several points so as not to endanger visitors.

"Later, we will ask the manager to immediately make the ban, so that no more visitors will be harmed," he said.

Previously, a teenager named Dika Gunawan (16) was dragged by the waves from Rio Beach Beach, Kalianda District, South Lampung Regency, Saturday (29/6) afternoon.

"The victim named Dika Gunawan is 16 years old and is a male citizen of Makmur Jaya, Tulang Bawang, Unit 2 Lampung," said Head of the Damkar Division of the South Lampung Damkarmat Service, Rully Fikriansyah, in Kalianda, Saturday (29/6).

He explained that the victim and his friends ignored the warning given by the coast guard, so they continued to swim in the middle and were carried away by the waves.

"The time of the incident the victim was declared missing at around 16.30 WIB," he said.

He said the victim swam on the beach with eight of his friends, then not long after that the victim and one of his friends were dragged by the waves.

"Two people were dragged by the waves, namely Tegar Satrio and Dika Gunawan. Tegar can be saved, while Dika is still being searched," he said.