Natural Disaster: Mitigation

Natural Disaster: Mitigation

By: Hananta

Natural Disaster is a natural phenomenon in the form of tragedy or catastrophe that causes a great damage in environment or loss of life. It can be in the form of volcano eruption, tsunami, hurricane or earthquake. The natural disasters are widely believed to be inevitable and nothing can be done to cease the emergence of it. In Indonesia, the publicity about mitigation of natural disaster is a scarcity which leads the people to be under-educated and have a tendency to rely on their own survival strategies. This condition induces the more victims taken almost in every natural disaster occurred in Indonesia. Actually, there are several ways can be done before and during the eventuality of natural disaster to alleviate the overwhelming victims including the dead and seriously injured people due to the occurrence of natural disaster.

Firstly, some of the various kinds of natural disaster can be predicted. For example tsunami, or a tidal wave that come from far away under the ocean and occurred when there is an earthquake underneath the ocean that caused the crack underwater that drain the amount of water and suddenly release it to be a massive wave that swept the coastline area. By learning the symptoms, people who live by the seashore can predict the tsunami as well preparing to avoid being near the seashore a far as possible. Another example is volcano eruption. It is an eruption of volcanic substances including lava, dusts, ashes and rocks from the top of the volcano. The lava can destroy anything it touched, for instance, trees, houses or even the entire city. Although it is difficult to be exactly predicted due to the irregular activities of the volcano, the eruption of volcano can be predicted by learning the natural signals, for instance, the various kinds of animal that descend the mountain can be the indication of the eventuality of the volcano eruption.

Secondly, developing the projects or programs that explain what to do before or during the natural disasters is also believed to be an effective way to decrease the number of dead and heavy injured people caused by natural disasters. The programs can be a simulation or an illustration that is believed to illuminate the public and educate them everything about natural disasters. It is very important for the public to be given a simulation, since it is not only provide the theories of survival, but also illustrate the real actions. For the frequent natural disaster, for instance earthquake. Although it is occurred frequently, the number of human tragedy is still very high and it is believed that the reason is because of the unpreparedness and confusion when the disaster was occurred. A case in point was the Padang earthquake in October 2009. Based on the news program in Metro TV, the disaster killed 1117 people. To compare, the one that happened in Turkey in October 2011 only killed about 200 people. This condition depicts the contrast situation for both countries in facing the natural disaster. By knowing what to do, the citizens will be prepared when the disaster was occurred. Therefore, they will know not be panic, where to find a place for shelter and how to escape safely and quickly.

To conclude this essay, the occurrences of natural disasters are inevitable to be stopped. However, predicting the occurrence of natural disasters by learning its patterns is very essential as well educating the public by giving disaster-simulation in order that the public know what to do before or during the occurrence of natural disasters in facing natural disasters that are frequently happened, are the effective ways to reduce the effect of natural disasters, especially the human tragedy which is the overt evidence of incapability and unpreparedness of the citizens in facing natural disaster.