East Kalimantan Social Service Agency Positions 12,500 Aid Packages Near Disaster Sites in the Region

Samarinda (ANTARA) - The Social Service Agency of East Kalimantan Province (Dinsos Kaltim) has positioned 12,500 logistics aid packages distributed to various regions to shorten delivery times during disaster emergencies. “The logistics distribution system has now been changed by involving the direct placement of some supplies in districts and cities so that their position is much closer to the disaster location, compared to being centralised in the provincial capital’s logistics warehouse,” said the Head of the East Kalimantan Social Service Agency, Andi Muhammad Ishak, in Samarinda on Monday. According to him, this more decentralised placement of logistics is part of the local government’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance quickly and on target. The social service standards include guarantees of nutritious food availability, provision of decent clothing, and the establishment of temporary shelter facilities for evacuees. “This high-standard public service also requires the state’s presence in providing special psychosocial intervention to restore the mental condition of the community after a disaster,” said Andi. The process of determining the quota of tens of thousands of logistics packages by Dinsos Kaltim for this year was not done arbitrarily, but through careful calculations based on past incident data. Dinsos Kaltim records the disaster history that the average need for physical assistance in the Benua Etam region fluctuates between 12,000 and 17,000 packages annually. In addition to tactical efforts in the supply chain of basic needs, the government has firmly regulated the scheme for dividing disaster management tasks among levels of government. The regulation on the division of workload stipulates that primary responsibility for handling will be assigned to district or city governments if the number of victims reaches the threshold of 50 people. To ensure that all policies for accelerating aid are executed maximally in the field, Dinsos Kaltim has mobilised a force of 300 active standby team personnel. The regional Disaster Preparedness Team has been specially trained through various basic emergency response training programmes. “Systematic efforts to enhance the capacity and expertise of human resources are made a routine annual agenda to maintain the region’s readiness in facing various potential disasters,” said Andi.