East Kalimantan BPBD Deploys 3,400 University Students as Disaster Mitigation Agents
The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of East Kalimantan Province is partnering with approximately 3,400 students on the Community Service Programme (KKN) to strengthen disaster mitigation efforts down to village level. The students will play a role in educating communities whilst collecting disaster-related data as the basis for developing more accurately targeted disaster management strategies.
Head of East Kalimantan BPBD, Buyung Dodi Gunawan, said the collaboration is being carried out with the Community and Village Government Empowerment Agency (DPMPD) and several universities in East Kalimantan.
“We are collaborating with the Community and Village Government Empowerment Agency and the universities to seek support from the KKN students so they can take on a thematic role relating to disaster data,” said Buyung in Samarinda on Saturday.
According to Buyung, the roughly 3,400 students come from nine universities in East Kalimantan. They will be placed in various villages during the KKN programme to help the government obtain a direct picture of potential disaster threats in each area.
In addition to educating communities, the students will also carry out empirical data collection on environmental conditions, vulnerability levels, and community preparedness in facing various types of disasters. That data will subsequently be analysed by BPBD as material for formulating more effective mitigation policies.
Buyung said that involving students is one way to strengthen the community-based approach to disaster management. The presence of students in villages is considered capable of bridging the delivery of disaster-related information whilst building residents’ awareness of the importance of early prevention efforts.
According to him, the results of the data collection carried out by the students will complement the information the regional government already possesses. With more detailed village-level data, the government can devise mitigation measures suited to the characteristics of each area, including taking into account the geographical, social, and cultural conditions of local communities.
The programme is also expected to strengthen the development of Disaster-Resilient Villages (Destana), a national programme that encourages villages to have the capacity to identify threats, reduce risks, and carry out initial response when a disaster occurs.
Buyung considers cross-sector collaboration an urgent necessity, particularly in facing the threat of forest and land fires during the dry season. Based on various past incidents, human activity remains the dominant cause of fire hotspots.