TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in a meeting with the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) on Thursday said he has data suggesting the world is facing a rising trend of potential disasters for the past 50 years and urged everyone to keep that in mind.

“Indonesia has also endured a frequency of disasters that drastically increased. Up to 81 percent,” said Jokowi in the meeting on February 16.

The data he quoted suggest there were 1,946 disasters in 2010 and that number rose to a staggering 3,542 in 2022.

He also mentioned a number of public transport disasters such as the Air Asia crash in 2014, Sriwijaya’s SJ 182 at the Thousand Islands, Lion Air JT610 which crashed in the Karawang waters in 2018, and the ferry boat Kapal Sinar Bangun that sank at Lake Toba in 2018.

The President also acknowledged the rapid responses from the Basarnas in the field.

“I witnessed it with my own eyes in the field. I say it as it is, the speed of Basarnas’ responses were very quick,” said the President while giving a thumbs-up gesture to meeting participants.

In terms of search and rescue equipment, he talked about technological advancement in this field that Indonesia must adopt in the future, apart from what the agency is currently equipped with. His concern is to protect the personnel of the search and rescue team.

“Many things the Basarnas should have. Such as rescue drone,” he said. “I am not aware if there is a budget for it. But if there isn’t, it surely should be proposed [to the government].”

FAJAR PEBRIANTO

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