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Floods remain biggest threat in 2025, disaster agency says
La Niña is triggering a wetter rainy season in Indonesia, with higher intensity rainfall expected to occur until at least April, increasing the risk of hydrometeorological disasters across the country, the BNPB has warned.
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Houses partially submerged in flood water after the Kobe River overflowed following heavy rains are seen in Lukulamo, North Maluku, on July 22, 2024. (AFP/Azzam Risqullah)
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fter enduring a prolonged dry season due to El Niño, a large part of Indonesia endured hydrometeorological disasters such as floods and landslides for most of last year, a trend likely to continue in the next few months, the country’s disaster agency has warned.
Throughout 2024, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) recorded a total of 2,107 incidents of disasters that claimed at least 547 lives, displacing over 6.3 million others and destroying around 60,000 homes across the country.
The figure was less than half of the 5,400 incidents in 2023. But the decline was due to a new method used by the BNPB to classify an event as a disaster, which should now either result in at least one casualty, impact 50 people or damage five buildings, among other criteria.
More than half of the 2024 disasters, around 1,088 incidents, were floods. Extreme weather events trailed as the second-most common occurrence at 455 incidents.
While El Niño was the main regional factor that drove a high number of forest and land fires in 2023, it was La Niña’s turn last year, which brought wetter and colder winds to the archipelago, said BNPB spokesperson Abdul Muhari.
“This caused rainfall to be higher than average, making floods and other extreme weather events the most frequent disasters last year,” Abdul said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
Read also: Last 2 years crossed 1.5C global warming limit: EU monitor
