Building a disaster-resilient future

INDONESIA RISING. Policy Priorities for 2010 and Beyond 53472 Building A Disaster-Resilient Future Key Messages 1. Indonesia is prone to natural disasters that place considerable strain on government and public resources. 2. Building safer communities and investing in community preparedness and environmental rehabilitation, will significantly reduce Indonesia's vulnerability to and the impact of future natural disasters. 3. The main challenge is to shift away from a reactive approach, and begin to incorporate disaster risk management in mainstream development programs. Key Actions The government should consider the following immediate actions: 1. Ensuring that the regulations for the new Law on Disaster Management are fully developed, disseminated and implemented. 2. Devising a fiscally responsible comprehensive risk-financing strategy to ensure community financial resilience. 3. Focusing on effective investments in disaster prevention and response for local governments, communities and the private sector. 4. Investing in environmental rehabilitation and addressing informal settlements through settlement redevelopment, urban infrastructure improvement and local job creation. data2, there were more than 4,000 natural disasters in Where Indonesia Stands Now Indonesia between 2001 and 2007 including floods (37 percent), droughts (24 percent), landslides (11 percent), Indonesia ranks 12th globally in mortality risks from and windstorms (nine percent). The cost of replacing or multiple hazards. It is situated on one of the most active restoring public infrastructure and private households, disaster hot spots on earth, where earthquakes, tsunamis, most of which are uninsured, placed an enormous burden volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, drought and forest on public expenditure. For example, the 2004 Aceh/Nias fires frequently occur. According to a global risk analysis tsunami tragedy caused US$4.5 billion in damages and by the World Bank1, Indonesia ranks 12th among the top losses, and the figure for the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake 35 countries, globally, to face high mortality risks from was US$3.5 billion. The government spent reconstruction multiple hazards. Forty percent of its 230 million citizens budget of more than US$7 billion for Aceh and Nias and live in at-risk areas so the potential for major humanitarian US$2 billion for Yogyakarta respectively3. catastrophes in the future is very real. The increasing frequency of disasters burdens public 2 DiBi database (Data and Information on Disaster in Indonesia), finance and the economy. According to the government's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). http://dibi.bnpb.go.id 3 Building Back Better: Disaster Risk Reduction and The Recovery Opportunity. Bakri Beck, Deputy Chief for Rehabilitation and 1 See World Bank, Natural Disaster Hotspots, A Global Risk Analysis Reconstruction, BNPB, APEC Workshop on Damage Assessment (Washington, DC: Disaster Risk Management Series, 2005), table 1.2 Technique, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 3-6 August 2009. 2 | INDONESIA RISING Much of the country is highly vulnerable to earthquakes than $900 million4. According to the Ministry of Public and volcanic eruptions. Sumatra alone has experienced Works (MoPW), annual flooding in the Bengawan Solo over 15 large earthquakes in the past century. Seventy of watershed cost the government more than $200 million in Indonesia's 129 active volcanoes are classified as dangerous. 2007, equal to the total rehabilitation and reconstruction Between 2001 and 2007 alone, 26 volcanic eruptions were allocation for all disasters for the entire country for 20085. recorded, mostly in Java. In 1815 more 92,000 people died when the Tambora volcano on the northern coast Deforestation and prolonged drought intensify and of Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, erupted. The 1883 increase the occurrence of forest fires. The wildfire and eruption of Krakatau claimed more than 36,000 lives and smoke-haze episodes in Indonesia during the 1980s and created tsunamis as far away as South Africa. The islands 1990s were the first documented cases of the El Ni