TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The acting chief of West Java Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), Dani Ramdan, said the mapping of potential disaster-prone areas has been formed until village level, hoping that the public will have an understanding of disaster conditions in their regions.

He viewed that people’s understanding and awareness to remain vigilant is crucial.

“Only earthquake that cannot be predicted of when and where it will happen. But for flooding, we can see it from the natural conditions, such as coastal flooding which can be predicted through the rising seawater. Meanwhile, tsunami and earthquake can’t be predicted,” Dani told Antara Saturday, January 30.

Following the disaster mapping, he asked for regional governments to form disaster mitigation plan in each level from district, subdistrict, until village level. “Villages, for example, can form evacuation routes, and/or evacuation stations whenever a disaster occurs,” he said.

West Java BPBD data recorded 852 landslides in the region along 2020, which some of them had taken lives. In early 2021, a landslide that hit Cihanjuang Village in Cimanggung, Sumedang Regency, on Saturday, January 9, killed 40 people, while in early 2020, seven people died of a landslide in Sukajaya, Bogor.

Compared to Central Java, the landslide case in West Java was recorded to be lower. West Java BPBD recorded 1,387 landslides throughout 2020. In Central Java, a researcher with the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG) said that the natural event only occurs in certain cities or regencies, while in West Java, almost every city/regency is prone to landslide.

Many landslides in West Java have the potential to claim lives since many residential areas were built in sloping plain or steep slope areas.

The PVMBG researcher Sumaryono viewed that 80 percent of landslide events were triggered by heavy rainfall. Therefore, during the rainy season caused by the La Nina phenomenon, the government and the public are urged to be aware of landslide potential in West Java.

Read: Landslide Hit Ciadeg Bogor as Cisadane River Overflows

Antara