As a disaster-prone country, Indonesia has long been familiar with natural hazards. Even before advanced technology arrived, our Indonesian ancestors developed their own ways to prevent and mitigate disasters – and to live in harmony with natural hazards.
Indonesia is familiar with various kinds of hazard. As it is located within the ring of fire, it faces a constant risk of earthquakes and tsunamis. Heavy rainfalls persist for almost half of the year, provoking risks of floods and landslides.
Some articles have suggested the catastrophes in Durban and the greater eThekwini region of South Africa following recent floods are due to climate change and maladministration. That comes as no surprise, considering the geology of the area.
If you were watching international news in February, you would have heard about the devastating landslides that swept through the Brazilian city of Petrópolis. Extreme rainfall along the Serra do Mar range triggered 269 landslides.
Rains are nothing new and they will certainly happen again, it is time to make the right decisions and investments. Local plans for risk reduction and emergency response already exist; all it takes is adequate resources to make them effective.
Residents living near slopes or hilly areas need to be exposed to knowledge and ways to to identify early landslide indications in their housing areas to reduce the risk of fatalities.
Scientist Sam Purkis discovered evidence of a 500-year-old landslide, and a sizable tsunami, that could have implications for coastline development of coastlines in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
