"We should anticipate the increasing number of disasters in Indonesia by developing culture of disaster awareness to mitigate the risks of disasters. Disaster is multidimensional so all sciences should give solution to disasters," he said in a press statement released on Monday.
The disaster awareness of the Simeulue community to stay alert for tsunami is worth following, he said during the opening of the fourth annual scientific week and the national congress of the Indonesian Association of Disaster Experts (IABI) at the University of Indonesia (UI) campus.
The Simeulue communitys habit of running to the hill when they feel a large earthquake has become the culture of the Indonesian nation now, he said.
The vice president said the culture of the Simeulue community has helped rescue the local people.
"Only 10 people were killed in Simeulue, while the death toll in the rest of Aceh which did not have the culture reached more than 100 thousand," he said referring to the devastating tsunami triggered by a 9.5-magnitude earthquake in Aceh on December 26, 2004.
The rising number of disasters should make academics and scientists more aware of the need to innovate ways to reduce the number of victims, he said.
"So researchers, academics, practitioners and others must answer four questions of what, where, why and how (disasters happen). Science and technology must be able to predict disasters accurately," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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