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eclared by a UN report as the country most prone to natural disasters, Indonesia is struggling to deal with perennial snags in budgeting and coordination among state institutions to curtail the impacts of disasters, an official says.

Bureaucratic hurdles also slowed post-disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation programs.

“Insufficient budgets and poor coordination often slow down the rehabilitation and reconstruction processes,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the head of information and public relations at the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), told The Jakarta Post.

He said that seeing the enormous risks posed by disasters, underlined in warnings from the United Nations, Indonesia needed at least Rp 8 trillion (US$936 million) in cash per year to deal with disasters across the archipelago.

The government set aside Rp 4 trillion this year — higher than the Rp 3.79 trillion in 2010 — to deal with natural disasters, of which some 74 percent are due to flooding, tsunamis and meteorological catastrophes.

“Some state offices are reluctant to submit reports on natural disasters mitigation activities to the BNPB,” he added.

A 2011 United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) report ranked Indonesia as the nation most prone to disaster hazards from tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, drought and forest fires. Indonesia ranks first out of 265 countries in tsunami hazard, with over 5 million people exposed, the report said.

The country was also ranked first in landslide and earthquake hazards, as some 197,372 and 11 million people were exposed, respectively.

Indonesia is sixth out of 162 in flood hazard, with over one million exposed, while drought was projected to impact over 2 million.

According to the report, Indonesia could potentially lose over $3.46 billion from its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to tsunami-related disasters.

Sutopo said that economic losses due to natural disasters could be far higher than the UN’s projections, as natural disasters were expected to occur more frequently due to climate change.

“We are mapping areas suffering from weather changes. Several areas in Java, for example, have suffered from unusual drought,” he said.

He warned that natural disasters could negatively impact the country’s economic development and reduce its productivity.

Indonesia has suffered a series of natural disasters — most recently the eruption of mount Merapi in Yogyakarta and the earthquake-triggered tsunami in Mentawai, West Sumatra.

The government allotted Rp 2.35 trillion for reconstruction programs after the Merapi eruption and some Rp 1.1 trillion for the tsunami recovery in Mentawai.

Data from the BNPB showed that the catastrophic tsunami in Aceh in 2004 caused financial losses of Rp 39 trillion.

The 2006 earthquake that shocking Yogyakarta and Central Java caused a financial loss of about Rp27 trillion, while the 2007 flood in Jakarta caused losses of Rp4.8 trillion.

The 2009 earthquake in South Sumatra caused a loss of Rp 21.6 trillion.

“These are big losses compared with the fact that building the 122-kilometer Suramadu Bridge cost Rp 5 trillion. It shows the impacts of disasters in slowing down economic development,” he said.

The BNPB has proposed establishing a disaster insurance program to cover financial losses and provide for emergency needs.