Indonesia: Disaster agency urges people to increase alertness during rainy season

Antara 24 Jan 16;

Manado, N Sumatra (ANTARA News) - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has called on the people to increase alertness in the face of the current rainy season.

"The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysic Agency (BMKG) has predicted that the rainy season will peak at the end of January 2016. Although the El Nino phenomen right now is still in high intensity yet its condition is expected to enter the neutral phase in March and April 2016," Head of the BNPB Data Information Center and Public Relations Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said here on Sunday.

He said that there were about 63.7 million people in Indonesia who were now living in areas sensitive to floods.

There are also 40.9 million people living in areas which were prone to landslides.

"They have to be safeguarded so that they would not be affected by disasters," Sutopo said.

(A014)