Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has continued to take steps to ensure that people can carry on with their lives during times of volcanic activity in Mount Merapi, which include readiness measures for preventing casualties.

The head of the ministry's Geology Agency, Eko Budi Lelono, made the remarks at a virtual press conference held by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) on Monday.

The Geology Agency is seeking the realization of harmonic living with Mount Merapi, he said.

To achieve this aim, the Geology Disaster Technology Investigation and Development Center (BPPTKG) of the agency is intensively installing several monitoring equipment, both under and over the surface, he informed.

This is to ensure that all Merapi activities that occur can be recorded and information about them can be quickly disseminated to the relevant stakeholders, he added.

The stakeholders, in this case, comprise the provincial government of Yogyakarta as well as districts or cities around Merapi.

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The concept of harmonic living with Merapi prioritizes efforts to change the people's behavior pattern to a science-based approach, especially concerning volcanic activities in Mount Merapi, he informed.

"As a result, it is expected that the people rationally and scientifically understand Merapi. Hence, they have their own readiness," Lelono said.

Mitigation steps are being undertaken not only by disseminating information on Merapi’s activities, but also through the holding of mandatory disaster mitigation training by the BPPTKG.

This is to ensure that people are ready to face the risks posed by one of the active volcanoes in Indonesia.

"From this concept, as soon as there is early warning from monitoring posts, it will be processed by BPPTKG, communicated to relevant regional government's BPBD (Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency), and disseminated to the people," he explained.

Hence, the people already know what to do in order to avoid losing their wealth and their lives to disasters, he added.

The press conference was held by BNPB to mark the approach of 2022 Disaster Preparedness Day (HKB), which falls on April 26, 2022.

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Translator: Prisca Triferna V, Fadhli Ruhm
Editor: Suharto
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