MP urges strengthening of mitigation measures against "Godzilla El Niño" threat
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Member of the House of Representatives Commission VIII, Muhamad Abdul Azis Sefudin, has urged the government to strengthen mitigation measures in facing the extreme El Niño phenomenon, often called “Godzilla El Niño”, which is predicted to strike Indonesia.
“Do not let us repeat the same mistakes. When the BMKG has already issued warnings regarding high rainfall or the threat of ‘Godzilla El Niño’, we must be prepared. Prevention is far better and cheaper than treating or handling the impacts that have already occurred,” he said, quoted in Jakarta on Monday.
He emphasised that such mitigation steps should be taken well before disasters occur.
He reminded that Indonesia must learn from the experience of the Sumatra floods, which caused losses of up to hundreds of billions of rupiah due to suboptimal mitigation efforts.
He also highlighted the national disaster trend, which records nearly 4,000 incidents every year.
“The current capacity of the BNPB is mostly absorbed in handling [disasters]. We need to push for a national policy that can precisely map disaster-prone areas from an early stage. In addition, supervision of land and forest permits must be tightened to prevent landslides and flash floods that have systemic impacts on national development,” he stated.
Furthermore, he gave special attention to the vulnerability of children during disasters.
He said that the majority of fatalities in various disaster events are children due to limited knowledge of self-rescue methods.
Therefore, he encouraged the government to incorporate disaster-related curricula into schools.
“Physically, children’s resilience differs from that of adults. They often do not know where to run during a tsunami or earthquake. For that reason, I personally urge the government to seriously include disaster curricula in schools, as implemented in Japan,” he said.
With such a curriculum, he said, Indonesian children would have strong survival instincts. They would understand evacuation routes and emergency steps according to the characteristics of the area, whether coastal or mountainous.
Previously, Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq asked his staff to focus on handling six provinces that have the potential to experience forest and land fires due to the “Godzilla El Niño” phenomenon, which could cause prolonged drought.
The six provinces include Riau, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Jambi, South Sumatra, and South Kalimantan, which are considered to have extensive peatlands, thus requiring detailed and concrete plans, especially regarding peat ecosystem management.