A women's group taking part in training - CC-Attrib / Elsje Fourie
The newspaper editor who had commissioned this article from me changed his mind with the explanation that “stories on development don’t sell” (!), so I let it gather dust for a while. But after an estimated 1100 died in the tragic Sumatra earthquake of September 30th, this piece–about working with lndonesians to prepare for natural disasters–suddenly seemed very relevant again. My heart goes out to those who lost their lives or loved ones in the quake, and I hope that the Indonesian authorities will take disaster risk reduction (DRR) more seriously than it does at the moment. Amidst the horror, the hopeful story of a town where careful planning prevented a single death, emerged this week to show that DRR does work. However, the scale of the destruction shows that Indonesians need help from the international community and their own government so that the lucky villages are not as few and far between…
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For those who do not live above the world’s tectonic faultines, it is difficult to imagine: one morning you realize the lamp hanging from your ceiling is swaying, before the floor begins to roll underneath your feet like water. Or you are told to leave your home for three months, not knowing whether all you leave behind might be covered by a blanket of lava upon your return.
This is the reality for most in Indonesia, however. Situated almost entirely on the famously volatile Ring of Fire, Indonesia has 220 active volcanoes and suffers an average of 7000 earthquakes a year. Four months of heavy monsoon rains, aggravated by deforestation and erosion, causes flooding and hundreds of landslides each year. Forest fires, tornadoes and tsunamis add to the chaos. According to the UN, more disaster-related deaths occurred in Indonesia than in any other country in 2006.
Continue reading Living on the Edge: Disaster Risk Reduction in Indonesia
