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Disaster mitigation agency predicts fewer disasters in 2017
Indonesia will see fewer natural disasters next year thanks to the weaker effects of the La Niña and El Niño phenomenon, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) predicted.
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Pigs are moved to drier ground after their barn is hit with flooding in Mojolaban, Sukoharjo, Central Java. JP/ Ganug Nugroho Adi (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
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ndonesia will see fewer natural disasters next year thanks to the weaker effects of the La Niña and El Niño phenomenon, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) predicted.
BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said his office predicted that hydro-metrology catastrophes would still dominate natural disaster figures in 2017, but they would not be as disastrous as in 2016, in which 2,342 natural calamities occurred.
“Next year, the peak phase of hydro-meteorology disasters will be in January to February. However, rain density will be normal so the risk of flooding, landslides and whirlwinds will be lower [as compared to 2016],” he said during a year-end presentation at the BNPB in East Jakarta on Thursday.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) expects the strong effects of La Niña, which involves a natural cooling of Pacific Ocean waters and generally follows El Niño, which carries the opposite effect, will last until before the first half of the year, after which the dry and wet seasons will return to normal, Sutopo said.
According to the BNPB’s year-end report, floods (766), whirlwinds (669) and landslides (612) were the most frequently occurring natural disasters in 2016, with landslides and floods the deadliest catastrophes, having claimed the lives 188 and 147 people, respectively. (evi)
