Indonesia: 'Jakarta needs to do risk study on crisis and disaster urgently'

Yogyakarta - Disasters and crisis are problems that are often experienced by megacities in several parts of the world, including Jakarta. The condition worsened with the fast increase of people growth, rapid urbanization without good planning and inappropriate land use. The problem will be social problem if it is not handled immediately.

The topic emerged in workshop entitled Risk, Crisis Prevention, and Disaster Management in Megacities held at Office of BPPT, M.H. Thamrin 8, Jakarta, Monday (7/2). The workshop is the cooperation between Faculty of Geography of UGM, BPPT, and Koeln University of Germany.

Head of Disaster Mitigation Technology Section of BPPT, Drs. Bambang Marwanta, M.T.,said that it is time for megacities such as Jakarta to do integrated study on risk assessment, crisis and disaster management by considering not only the potential threats of natural disasters but also the dangers due to technology failure and human actions.

Dr. Muh Aris Marfai from S2 program of Coastal and Watershed Management mentioned the importance of adaptation strategy on climate change, particularly for coastal cities and megacities such as Jakarta. “Multi-use purposes of coastal area with its complex problems significantly influence vulnerability level of this area on global climate change. The increasing occurrences of sea-water tides, river floods, and extreme weather encourage us to make action plan to reduce disaster risk which can be formulated together between government and community,” he said.

On that occasion, Gerrit Peters from University of Cologne revealed some of his research experiences related to ability of Jakarta community in doing adaptation and strategy for risk reduction of flood, one of them is through participatory urban appraisal. “A team from S2 Program of Coastal and Watershed Management of UGM and I came to Muara Angke and Kampung Melayu areas to do research for two months to get data related to community’s ability to do adaptation and strategy for disaster risk reduction.

Meanwhile, Director of Environment from CIDES (Center Indonesia for Development and Studies), M. Rudi Wahyono, emphasized the importance of community empowerment in handling disasters.

In his release sent on Wednesday (9/2), Aris Marfai said that the workshop is also part of collaboration research of Faculty of Geography UGM with University of Koeln about disaster potential and problems in megacities with case study in Jakarta. “We share concepts and practical knowledge related to crisis and disaster management and we formulate concrete steps which must be done in the future,” he finished.