He said many Indonesian were still at a loss what to do when a a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami occureed. This condition often caused the usual panic among people during a disaster, he added.
"People, especially those living in disaster-prone areas, must be taught what they must do during a disaster. Disaster drills may help but such drills are not conducted regularly," Safri said.
People also needed to be reminded always to use quake-proof building systems, he added. "BMKG and the Ministry of Public Works have created a model of seismic-proof building. I suggest that developers, especially those who want to build housing complexes near disaster-prone areas, to use the system," he said.
In the same spirit of trying to reduce dead victims when natural disaster come, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) had earlier stated it would allocate Rp 100 million in 2011 for the mapping of disaster-prone areas in Indonesia, an official said.
"The map is needed to support local governments` efforts to daw up maps of the vulnerable areas. These areas must not be used for housing development or construction of public places," BNPB`s Director of Disaster Risk Reduction, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said.
He said the funds would be sent proportionally to BNPB office in 33 provinces in Indonesia to support the mapping work. Sutopo expressed hope that the mapping of disaster-prone areas in Indonesia could help the government reduce the number of casualties due to natural disasters.
Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world because it is located on the Pacific Ocean`s "ring of fire" of volcanoes and earthquakes. During October 2010, Indonesia was hit by three major disasters in different parts of the country.
The first one was a flash flood in Wasior, West Papua, on October 3, which took the lives of 124 people and left 123 others missing. The second disaster was a magnitude-7.7 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Mentawai Islands District, West Sumatra , on October 25 which killed at least 408 people, caused 303 others to go missing and 23,000 people to lose their homes forcing them to stay in refugee camps.
Just one day after the Mentawai earthquake and tsunami, Mount Merapi, one of Indonesia`s most active volcanoes, started to erupt on October 26, 2010. A total of 185 people, including Mbah Maridjan, the `spiritual caretaker" of the volcano, were killed, and tens of others were injured.
Around 40,000 people were evacuated to safer places. Located on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta, the volcano had been erupting regularly since 1548.
