January 13, 2025
JAKARTA – After enduring a prolonged dry season due to El Niño, a large part of Indonesia endured hydrometeorological disasters such as floods and landslides for most of last year, a trend likely to continue in the next few months, the country’s disaster agency has warned.
Throughout 2024, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) recorded a total of 2,107 incidents of disasters that claimed at least 547 lives, displacing over 6.3 million others and destroying around 60,000 homes across the country.
The figure was less than half of the 5,400 incidents in 2023. But the decline was due to a new method used by the BNPB to classify an event as a disaster, which should now either result in at least one casualty, impact 50 people or damage five buildings, among other criteria.
More than half of the 2024 disasters, around 1,088 incidents, were floods. Extreme weather events trailed as the second-most common occurrence at 455 incidents.
While El Niño was the main regional factor that drove a high number of forest and land fires in 2023, it was La Niña’s turn last year, which brought wetter and colder winds to the archipelago, said BNPB spokesperson Abdul Muhari.
“This caused rainfall to be higher than average, making floods and other extreme weather events the most frequent disasters last year,” Abdul said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
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Of the 547 people killed or missing, around eight out of 10 were caused by either floods or landslides, according to the BNPB data.
One of the deadliest disasters recorded last year was the flash flood and lahar flow hitting Agam regency in West Sumatra in May. The incident killed at least 56 people with 10 missing.
Other major incidents were a series of eruptions of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), in November and heavy flooding and landslides in Sukabumi regency, West Java, in December.
Preventive measures
Hazards from hydrometeorological disasters were still expected to threaten the country in the coming months, Abdul said. The prediction was in line with a forecast from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) warning that extreme weather events could persist until April.
“The intensity of rainfall will continue to increase until February. The BNPB is focusing on end-to-end integrated anticipatory measures,” the spokesperson said.
The disaster agency recorded several regions that have been hit by flooding and landslides in recent weeks. Four districts in Serang regency, Banten, reported flooding of up to 1 meter that affected 734 people. The floodwaters also reached the provincial capital of Serang, but had receded as of Thursday afternoon.
Two floods were also reported in South Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra, where around 350 families in Tantom Angkola district had to take shelter. Authorities have opened a public kitchen and supplied clean water for the displaced residents.
Among other efforts, the disaster agency is launching cloud-seeding operations to induce rain before it arrives over heavily populated areas. The BNPB also plans to install new early warning equipment to detect the buildup of volcanic materials to anticipate lahar flows.
The agency also aims to improve disaster preparedness at the grassroots level by disbursing funds, manpower and equipment for regional administrations and encouraging the establishment of community patrols to routinely check for signs of imminent disaster.
Momentum for change
Disaster management expert Mizan Bisri from Kobe University in Japan has lauded improvements made among authorities to forecast disasters and prepare an emergency response once the incident happens.
He stressed that various government bodies and ministries, as well as central government and regional administrations, still needed to improve coordination on disaster mitigation, especially after President Prabowo Subianto had formed multiple new ministries.
“Preparing for a disaster is everybody’s business, so new ministries must quickly internalize their own approaches to mitigating disasters and preparing an effective emergency response in their sectors,” Mizan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
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The upcoming inauguration of new regional leaders, which will take place by March at the latest, would also serve as a perfect opportunity to reevaluate if one area’s disaster risk profile needed to be recalibrated, he added, as outdated information about disaster risk would adversely impact readiness in facing hazards.
The expert also called for the public to play its part in getting ready for any potential disaster by, among other measures, identifying public places usually impacted by disasters and warning fellow residents to be extra cautious and watch for any signs of hazards.