Indonesia: Over 2,000 Disasters Expected to Occur in 2018 throughout the country

Netral news 21 Dec 17;

JAKARTA, NNC - According to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the rainy and dry seasons of 2017 until 2018 are normal. But it predicted there will be more than 2,000 occurrences in the territory of Indonesia in 2018.

Head of Information Data Center and Public Relation of National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Sutopo Purwo Nugroho predicted hydrometeorological hazards, i.e., flood, landslide and tornado will still dominate disasters throughout 2018. It is estimated that hydrometeorological hazards will occur more than 90 percent.

"Based on the magnitude of the floods and landslides, it depends on the intensity of the rainfall, current environmental condition which has been ecological emergency, where environmental degradation, forest degradation, critical watersheds, high vulnerability and others cause disasters like floods and landslides expand," said Sutopo during a press conference at the BNPB Office, Thursday (12/21/2017).

Sutopo said hydrometeorological disasters lasted during the rainy season, i.e., from November to April 2018 with the peak of the disasters in January to February 2018.

He also expected that the landslides will remain catastrophic disaster while the floods will still occur in areas prone to flooding in accordance with flood-prone maps.

Sutopo also added that in 2018 the agency predicted the earthquake will also continue to occur. On average each month there are about 500 earthquake events in Indonesia, but earthquakes cannot be predicted accurately for its magnitude, time and location.

"But the earthquake is predicted to occur in the subduction pathway at sea and the fault line on land," he said. "We need to watch out for the earthquakes in eastern Indonesia where the seismicity and geology are more complicated and the vulnerability is higher," added Sutopo.

Mount Agung and Mount Sinabung activities are also estimated to be high so that there is still potential for eruption. Forest and land fires will also occur, but according to Sutopo, this fire case can be addressed properly.