TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) states that as many as 40,9 million people are threatened by landslides due to the increased rain intensity.
BNPB Head of Data, Information, and Public Relations, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said that the number of lives threatened by the natural disaster equals to 17,2 percent of the population in Indonesia.
“They are threatened to the middle to high dangers of the landslide directly,” he said on Wednesday, November 16, 2016.
Sutopo said that the effective way to avoid further landslides is through spatial planning. An early warning system on landslides can be installed in regions across Indonesia, although the expense would be massive.
“Socialization and increasing the capacity of local governments and society will always be done in order to create a tough and prepared society in facing landslide disasters,” he said.
The natural disaster shows an increased in the past decade. In 2007, there were 104 landslide incidents. The numbers rose in 2008 with 112 incidents, 238 in 2009, and 400 in 2010. The numbers fell to 329 cases in 2011 and 291 in 2013. However, the numbers rose drastically to 600 cases of landslides in 2014 and 515 cases in 2015.
In the last decade, BNPB recorded that there are 3,372 landslides in the country. The disaster has killed 1,685 lives, wounded 1,657 people and affected 443,998 residents, as well as damaged 22,000 houses.
The landslide mostly occurs in Central Java (1.126 cases), West Java (858 cases), East Java (387 cases), West Sumatera (149 cases), and East Kalimantan (83 cases).
VINDRY FLORENTIN
