Natural Disaster Refugees Reach 8.26 Million until December 19

TheIndonesia.co - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) recorded that 8.26 million people were impacted by natural disasters in Indonesia and had to evacuate from January 1 to December 19, 2021.

 "Until December 19, 2021, at 3 p.m. WIB (Western Indonesian Standard Time), 2,931 disasters were recorded," the agency stated through its official Twitter account here on Monday.

 Apart from being causal to the evacuation of millions, the disasters also claimed 654 lives, caused 93 people to go missing, and injured 14,105 people.

According to the number of incidents as per the types of disaster, flooding was the most frequent disaster in Indonesia, with 1,236 incidents, followed by 746 extreme weather incidents, 595 incidents of landslides, and 265 incidents of forest and land fires.

The BNPB also recorded 140,829 damaged houses out of which 18,971 suffered severe damages, 25,263 incurred moderate damages, and 96,595 houses suffered mild damages.

Moreover, some 3,670 public facilities were destroyed comprising 1,482 education facilities, 1,834 praying facilities, and 354 health facilities. Moreover, 504 offices and 417 bridges were destroyed.

Earlier, the BNPB, through the Early Warning Directorate, held a flood early warning system practice in order to improve the people's readiness.

During the practice held at Ngelang Village, Magetan, East Java, BNPB's Prevention Deputy Prasinta Dewi underscored the importance of being wary of likely disasters.

In addition, on Tuesday, House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Puan Maharani urged the government to be ready in conducting an emergency response to natural disasters that occur in Indonesia.

She requested the government along with other institutions to plan handling the risk of disasters in detail to minimize casualties, losses, and destruction.

Moreover, Maharani called for a review of the state budget's availability for several regions vulnerable to disasters to ensure more efficient utilization of the state's revenue.