Indonesia announced a report of damage caused by natural disasters

Indonesia National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has just released a report on disaster damage caused by disasters in Indonesia from 2013 to February 2014.

>>>Indonesia: The volcano erupted as thousands of bombs exploded

The agency has issued a recommendation that the island nation's readiness to respond to natural disasters is still low, despite the country on the Pacific Ring of Fire, constantly suffering from earthquakes and active volcanoes, not to mention the annual large-scale floods, landslides and forest fires.

BNPB also urged the Indonesian government to pay more attention to issues related to natural disasters and respond to natural disasters, especially to improve and raise awareness and understanding of the entire population about natural disasters. and prevention of natural disasters into an attitude, social practice or culture.

Indonesian soldiers evacuated people near the eruption of the Kelud volcano.(Photo: AFP / VNA)

Director of Data Center of BNPB, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that the issue of natural disaster mitigation has not been prioritized for the five-year development plan of the local authorities, leading to local budget allocations for mitigation. natural disasters account for only about 0.5%.

Mr. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho emphasized that priority should be given to mitigating natural disasters at the level of considering investment in this area as investment in development. Disaster is inevitable, but the risk occurs and the level of damage can be reduced thanks to human activeness.

According to BNPB, in the US, 1 USD invested in disaster mitigation program can reduce 7 USD due to natural disasters, and the rate of saving in Europe is even higher, up to 10- 40 USD.

The BNPB statistics show that at the beginning of 2013 to February 2014, at least 197 people died, 64 were injured and 1.6 million people had to evacuate because of the disaster in Indonesia. Physical damage estimated to reach trillions of rupiah, including some major disasters such as flash floods in North Sukawesi (1,870 billion rupiah), Sinabung volcano in North Sumarta erupted (1,000 billion rupiah), USD) , floods in North Java (6,000 billion rupiah) and flooding in Jakarta (5,000 billion rupiah).

And most recently, at least 7 people died, 13 were injured, 200,000 people were evacuated, many airports and roads were closed because Kelud volcano on Java island erupted.