Khofifah Asks Regions To Prepare Mitigation Action Plans To Face La Nina Phenomenon

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa/DOC Public Relations East Java Provincial Government

SURABAYA - The Governor of East Java, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, has warned all regencies/cities in East Java to be ready to face the La Nina phenomenon which is predicted to occur at the end of 2021.

This is because the La Nina phenomenon has the potential to increase rainfall, which leads to an increase in hydrometeorological disasters such as floods and landslides.

Local governments, said Khofifah, need to prepare a mitigation action plan to minimize the impact of losses and victims. According to her, the readiness of personnel, tools, and supporting facilities must be prepared as early as possible so as not to stutter if at any time a disaster occurs.

"In addition to the preparedness meeting, mitigation that can be done is by cleaning waterways and gutters, dredging rivers, revamping river embankments, optimizing drainage, trimming trees, and so on," said Khofifah, when directly leading the Flood Alert Call held at the Semantok Dam, Sambikerep Village, Rejoso, Nganjuk Regency, Monday, November 1st.

Khofifah said that preparedness was not only at the local government level. The community must also be invited to be aware of the surrounding environment in order to understand the disaster risks they face. According to her, gotong royong is one of the efforts to minimize disaster risk.

"For example, the river in the area is prone to flooding due to siltation or sedimentation, then the surrounding community can work together to carry out simple normalization, plant trees along the watershed, and so on. At which point it needs support from the government, then this can be communicated," she said.

In the Inspection, Khofifah mentioned several points prone to flooding, namely the Lamong Gresik River, the Kemuning Sampang River, the Welang River and the Kedung Larangan River in Pasuruan. There are also several other rivers that have flood intensity, such as the Rejoso Pasuruan River, the Kening River in Tuban, and its tributaries in Madiun, the Bengawan River.

"Given that these points are flooded, it means that there is something that we must anticipate and mitigate with matters related to construction needs in these areas. The majority of the causes of flooding are piles of garbage at the floodgates. Please don't throw garbage to the community, in a river or a ditch," she said.

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) previously issued an early warning to be aware of the arrival of La Nina towards the end of this year. Based on BMKG's monitoring of the latest developments from sea surface temperature data in the Central and Eastern Pacific Oceans, the current anomaly value has passed the La Nina threshold.

This year's La Nina phenomenon will have an impact on an increase in monthly rainfall ranging from 20 percent to 70 percent above normal.

With the potential for an increase in rainfall during the rainy season, it is necessary to be alert and prepared for the potential for further high rainfall which has the potential to trigger a hydrometeorological disaster.

"In facing the rainy season, of course, we all have to prepare all available resources. Whether human resources or equipment and what is important is the use of technology, weather forecasting technology, water level monitoring technology, we must make optimal use of existing flood control facilities, " she said.

Khofifah also hopes that every area that is categorized as prone to flooding will immediately establish a main Flood Command Post at every point that is alerted. Not only that, but each region must also begin to monitor river embankments that are considered critical by conducting socialization to communities in remote village areas.

"Detailed coordination must continue to be carried out across sectors. Volunteers must be the front team in anticipating any unwanted flood disasters," she said.