Indonesia “A Land of Natural Disasters Tragedy”

Indonesia  “A Land of Natural Disasters Tragedy”

Indonesia, a multi-ethnic archipelago country of more than 17.000 islands, located between two continents, Asia and Australia and within the Indian and Pacific oceans, is one of many countries which has a lot of problems regarding the natural disasters. Indonesia is disposed to natural catastrophes because its islands rest on the edges of the Pacific, Eurasian, and Australian tectonic plates. Moreover, with the country’s climate that is predominantly tropical and characterized by extreme weather pattern, the risks of natural hazards in Indonesia remains alarmingly high. Indonesia is subject to frequent natural disasters. Due to its location, Indonesia will always be prone to natural disasters and its people are always at risk. Citizens of Indonesia always be haunted by upcoming natural disasters. Most of Indonesians are now believing that there is no more safety places in Indonesia to protect them from the disasters. This is trully a misleading mindset of them. Actually, the causes of disasters are mostly done by human. It’s not argued anymore that human play an important role in changing environmental condition.

As the expansive development began in early 1970’s, Indonesia has lost more than 60% of forests area in lowlands. Since that time, we have changed our coverage lands.  There are many more forests have been cutted down to build settlements, manufacturing, and another buildings. We are explorating too much to this country!! . Yes, that’s the true. We are still a developing country. With the total area more than 5 million km², Indonesia can be categorized as a big country, with highly human resources it leads into the high demands of basical needed. To fulfill their basic neededs, the natural resources are one of the solutions that easily to get. The problems are too much exploitations, less attention to the environment condition. This is the main factor why Indonesia suffers many disasters.

On average, every year nearly half of Indonesia’s districts experience at least one natural disaster and many experience multiple disasters. Is there any prevention or preparedness? Yes, there are so many of it! In every single disaster came, Indonesian Government and local government react to this. Make plentiful of new regulations regadring the disasters. Increasing the people’s mindset about how to protect the natural environment and many more. Natural disasters have reshaped Indonesia’s approach to disaster response and preparedness, and made communities more resilient. But, it’s just a little fact with a little understanding from a little group of people. Is it sustain? We have to think about it again. Indonesia is not a country where people are ready and well prepared for disatsters.  There are two impacts of disasters: Economically and psychologically. In terms of Indonesia’s economy, natural catastrophes damage property and stop economic activity, which consequently result in significant financial loss for the people. Furthermore, the series of natural disasters create more burden on the national budget to finance post-disaster rehabilitation. (Jakarta Post, 2010)

Some of big natural disasters that have ever happened in Indonesia are floods, tsunami, earthquakes, and eruptions. First is floods. Floods in Indonesia could happened because of so many deforestations. Not just it, with more than 200 millions of population, Indonesians need settlement and more infrastructures, so they cutted down the forest, it can also called as deforestation, and make it as a built up area. Now, we are lack of trees which can absorb the incoming water from rain. Indonesia's rainy season (which runs from December to March) can bring plenty of rainfall. In combination with deforestation and waterways clogged with debris, it can cause rivers to overflow and result in floods. We can take Jakarta city as an example. Every year, they suffers flood with many deficits. We can see that many citizens in Jakarta build their houses near the river. Actually, we have a rule that we can build house with the range of 15 meters from the river’s border, but in Jakarta, the rule is nothing! . But this is not totally the mistake of Jakarta, Bogor as a ‘rain city’ is a key of this problem. Bogor nowadays is lack of forests, especially in Puncak Bogor. The forests have turned into a villa, housings, and many more. No forest mean no water absorbtion, the water from Bogor flow until Jakarta’s river and it is overflow.

Second one is Tsunami. Perhaps the most tragic experience has been that of Indonesia. In 2004, Indonesia lost over 200,000 people when a tsunami swept into Aceh – most people remember the moment they heard and saw the news of the East Asia tsunami.  A few months later, Nias was devastated by an earthquake. A little more than a year later, over 6,000 people in Java lost their lives in earthquakes and tsunamis. In 2010, Mount Merapi erupted, destroying houses and habitats barely recovering from the last disaster.  Because of Indonesia’s location in a geologically active part of the world, it will always be prone to natural disasters, and its people will always be at risk (World Bank, 2012). On average, once every five years a large tsunami happens in Indonesia, usually on the islands of Sumatra and Java. Generally, damage to the infrastructure exceeds the loss of lives. There are warning systems installed on many coastal areas but there have been reports that not all are functioning properly.

Third is Earthquake. Being located on the Pacific Ring of Fire (an area with a lot of tectonic activity), Indonesia has to cope with the constant risk of earthquakes. The biggest earthquake that happened in Indonesia are in Aceh Province, after that earthquake, tsunami came and swallow everything near the coasts.

The last one is Eruption caused by Volcanoes. Indonesia is the country that contains the most active volcanoes of all countries in the world. The Eurasian Plate, Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate are three active tectonic plates that cause the subduction zones that form these volcanoes. Indonesia is estimated to have 129 volcanoes, all carefully observed by the Centre of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (Pusat Vulkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi), because a number of Indonesian volcanoes show continuous activity.

                As the citizen of Indonesia, how can we prevent this harmly natural disasters?? Actually we can’t prevent it, but we can be prepared for this natural disasters and we have to reduce the damage caused by those disasters. Why?? First look into ourselves and realize that we need natural resources and they are provided to us so we can use it properly, but not exploit them too much. We have to take care of our environment no matter what. To save this and next generations. We always count on government’s act, but we have to take our own act to keep our environment alive. Over the past decades, there are lack of people pay attention to this problem, but since there are another issues about global warming, now many people react to save the world. It is not too late to make this world sustain for long terms. We have to raise more societal awareness. Therefore, the only choice we have is to prepare ourselves for the worst scenario and raise community awareness about the disasters. The state has to provide a reliable and appropriate disaster evacuation system and infrastructure. The government also needs to start listening to experts that have advised on potential disasters we face. If we do not take fundamental actions and responsibility, dealing with natural disasters will be more complicated in the future and we will be unable to prevent a huge loss of life.