It is the government's attempt to protect the public from the impacts of tsunami.Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) invited various parties to plant mangroves on Soge Beach, Pacitan District, East Java Province, as part of an effort to minimize the impact of a potential tsunami in the area.
The effort aimed to build a tsunami-resilient village, general secretary of BNPB, Lilik Kurniawan, said in a statement on Monday.
"The long-term attempt is to establish vegetation-based mitigation, one of which is by planting mangroves," he informed.
The mangrove planting activity was held to strengthen the disaster resilient-village program, which has been implemented in Sidomulyo village, Ngadirejo sub-district, Pacitan district, he said.
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Along with several representatives of ministries, agencies, local governments, and communities, he took part in the mangrove planting activity on the beach on Sunday (December 18, 2022).
The activity was organized under the Indonesia Disaster Resilience Initiatives Project (IDRIP), which is being implemented in collaboration with the World Bank.
A total of two thousand seedlings were planted on the beach during the activity, most of which were provided by Pacitan district’s Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).
The BNPB general secretary said that a number of perennials, which can survive in coastal areas, will also be planted around Soge Beach.
"It is the government's attempt to protect the public from the impacts of tsunami," he added.
Mangroves can serve as natural barriers on beaches to break tsunami waves, he noted. In addition, they can be used to prevent abrasion.
Thus, the planting activity was not only aimed at disaster mitigation, but also at supporting the climate change adaptation program, Kurniawan added.
Sidomulyo village is one of the 180 villages selected to receive earthquake and tsunami preparedness assistance under the IDRIP program, whose implementation is being coordinated through the BNPB as well as the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
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During the activity, BNPB and BMKG invited the representatives of several local governments, 17 provincial BPBDs, as well as some district/city BPBDs to learn about the efforts made by Sidomulyo village administrators to build a disaster-resilient village.
So far, the residents and government of Sidomulyo village have implemented 10 disaster-resilient village measures.
They have included carrying out village resilience assessment, establishing participatory-based village risk maps, applying community-based early warning, conducting structural and non-structural disaster mitigation, as well as holding evacuation plan simulations.
The BNPB is expecting that the efforts of Sidomulyo village would serve as a model for other local governments to emulate, depending on the conditions in their respective regions.
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Translator: Devi Ramadhan, Uyu Liman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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