Indonesia is an archipelagic country located in the middle of the Pacific Ring of Fire, making it prone to natural threats such as an earthquake, volcanic activities, tsunamis, droughts, etc. Ring of Fire itself is a term to define the area where active volcanoes are located. While the definition of Pacific Ring of Fire speaks volume about the domination of volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean.
Currently, at least more than 400 of both active and dormant volcanoes are scattered in the region and form a half-circle formation that resembles a ring. No wonder most of the earthquakes hit within this area.
We still remember how the volcanic eruption of Mount Agung in Bali in 2017 has caused 1,600 deaths. Currently, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of slightly more than 6.1 hit Lombok island, Indonesia last month. Not only that, according to Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG), in 2016 alone, the Eastern provinces experienced the rainfall levels which were twice the average rate.
One essential factor that cannot be denied is due to its geographical location, Indonesia is a country with intense seismic and volcanic activity. Based on the data from the Index for Risk Management (INFORM), Indonesia’s risk profile can be presented as follows.
As mentioned above regarding the tendency of Indonesia to experience more seismic activities as being in the centre of the ring, the issue must also be accompanied by the government efforts.
Learning from the devastating tsunami in 2004 that brutally destroyed Aceh Province, Indonesia was inspired to expedite the transformation of disaster management. Before the 2004 tsunami smashed the province, Indonesia only had the Presidential Decrees of 1979 which stipulate and regulate the National Disaster Management Consulting Board.
To be in line with the current condition, in 2007 Indonesia finally established the country’s disaster management law that sets before, during, and post responses towards natural disasters. Then a year later, the government of Indonesia formed the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). Upon the establishment of BNPB until this very second, Indonesia has made progress by promoting legal tools by the International Disaster Response Law (IDRL) Guidelines.
In the effort of strengthening disaster management, Indonesia cooperates with Australia in a number of practical solutions, such as developing national tsunami and hazard maps as part of the mitigation effort; initiating an impact assessment measurement to provide near real-time data on earthquakes, including the occurrences and other threats that might follow such as volcanic eruptions and floods.
Australian experts from Geoscience Australia have been working closely with various Indonesian partners, such as organisation, universities, the private sector, and most importantly with the technical and disaster management institutions. This year also marks the ten-year partnership between Indonesia and Australia in reinforcing disaster management.
Not only through bilateral cooperation, in 2011 ASEAN initiated the ASEAN Coordinating Center on Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center). AHA Center would provide assistance based upon a request or through discussion.
However, many have criticized its G2G scheme that caused many countries reluctant to be intervened during the disaster. Until the end of 2017, the intervention and assistance from the AHA Center only came three times in Indonesia, namely during earthquake and tsunami in Mentawai in 2010, the earthquake in Aceh, and flooding in Jakarta in 2013.
Talking in a broader perspective, the Disaster Management Cycle consists of 4 different phases to achieve rapid recovery; namely mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Unfortunately, Indonesia’s efforts to strengthen disaster management centralize in response and recovery phases and is not fully supported by the mitigation efforts.
Until now, Indonesia does not have the standardized disaster mitigation plan, even though there have been at least 513 disasters occurred in the country, reported in March 2018. While the government of Indonesia tends to accentuate the importance of disaster management. Whereas, with proper disaster risk reduction and mitigation, Indonesia can also prevent an economic downturn.
Actually, the legal framework to base the establishment of such mitigation standard is already available, namely Law No. 24 of 2007 on Disaster Management, where mitigation is part of the whole management. With an extreme disaster risk ratio of 10,24% in 2016, according to the World Risk Index, it is hoped that BNPB would set up a program that concentrates on mitigation efforts.