President Orders Installation of Landslide Early Warning Systems

    Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has ordered the installation of landslide early warning systems in frequently-affected areas to prevent casualties.

        "The President has ordered the BNPB (the National Disaster Mitigation Agency) to install early warning systems in landslide-prone areas," BNPB Chief Syamsul Maarif said here on Wednesday.

         To that end, the BNPB will cooperate with other agencies, including Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University (UGM), the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), and the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, he added.

        Furthermore, the government is also planning to conduct landslide drills for people living in landslide-prone areas, including the southern part of West Java and the central and southern parts of Central Java, he revealed.

       Landslides are common in several parts of Indonesia particularly in the dry season.

       A major landslide hit Jemblung hamlet in Central Java's Banjarnegara district last Friday (December 12) following heavy rains.

       The BPNB has put the landslide death toll at 79 as of Wednesday.  
   "Seventy-nine bodies have been found. We will continue the search (for missing victims)," Maarif remarked during a press conference at the presidential office here on Wednesday.

         Earlier, the Banjarnegara district administration announced December 8-21 as a period of emergency response to the landslides that flattened much of the village in central Indonesia.

         Before major landslides hit the hamlet on December 12, a state of emergency was already declared in Banjarnegara after landslides struck the sub-districts of Wanayasa, Pejawaran, and Sigaluh, Head of Public Relations, Data and Information Center of the BNPB Sutopo Purwo Nugroho noted in a press statement here on Tuesday.

           Some 1,145 refugees are currently accommodated in 10 evacuation shelters. The social affairs ministry and the BPBD, with the assistance of volunteers, have set up a public kitchen to provide food for the evacuees.

         The public works ministry has deployed 15 heavy equipment to clear some 300-meter-long roads of mud and 2 to 3 meters high debris. (WDY)