What is the world afraid of right now?
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The global community is no longer as afraid of the pandemic and war as they are of climate change, which has significantly increased the frequency of natural disasters, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has remarked.

"What is the world afraid of right now? It is not the pandemic, it is not the war, but there is something more horrible that is feared by all countries, which is climate change," he stated at the opening of the 2023 National Coordination Meeting on Disaster Mitigation here on Thursday.

The president noted that Indonesia is one of the top three countries most prone to disasters.

The frequency of natural disasters in Indonesia had increased by 81 percent over the last decade, from 1,945 disasters in 2010 to 3,544 disasters in 2022, the president stated.

"We do not only mitigate the (impacts of) floods, volcano eruptions, and landslides (but) we (also) face earthquakes, which become more frequent, as well as other natural and non-natural disasters," he remarked.

Hence, he emphasized that preparedness and vigilance are the keys to dealing with natural disasters.

Jokowi also stressed that pre-disaster, emergency response, and post-disaster management must be conducted properly by all parties.

On the same occasion, he also urged all local governments to include disaster risk mitigation attempts into their regional development plan as well as further simplify regulations on disaster aid disbursement, so that victims can get assistance at the earliest.

Earlier, at the working meeting of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) on February 16, 2023, the president stated that the frequency of natural disasters and major accidents occurring worldwide jumped by up to five folds in the last 50 years.

Hence, he encouraged Basarnas to involve the public in disaster-handling attempts by providing first aid training, especially to those residing in disaster-prone areas.

He also appealed to the agency to improve its equipment with the use of the latest technology to accelerate the evacuation process of disaster victims.

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Translator: Rangga Jingga, Uyu Liman
Editor: Anton Santoso
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