... disaster-related education should be made formal and included in the local content at schools."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Community vigilance against disaster should be stepped up in order to reduce the number of victims and material damage when a catastrophe occurs, an expert said.
"When an earthquake jolts a certain place, the local people get confused and know not what they have to do because they lack early vigilance against disaster," earthquake expert of the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) Agustan said here on Wednesday.
He noted that the people in disaster-prone areas should have known what they should do when a disaster struck anytime.
"For example, the people have to know to take shelter or run out of their house when an earthquake happens," Agustan said.
He pointed out that although Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," the people still lack early vigilance against disaster.
"Therefore, disaster-related education should be made formal and included in the local content at schools," he explained.
Since early this month at least four earthquakes had rocked parts of Indonesia; the first jolted Bener Meriah and Central Aceh district in Aceh province on July 2, and the second jolted Mentawai islands in West Sumatray on Saturday, then on Wednesday the area was jolted twice.
Meanwhile, Central Aceh district head Nasaruddin said in Banda Aceh on Tuesday that at least 4,215 people lost jobs to the July 2 earthquake that rocked Central Aceh and Bener Meriah districts.
"The people who lost jobs previously worked for coffee exporters, palm sugar factories and coffee mills," Central Aceh district head Nasaruddin said on Tuesday.
The earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale also forced 48,563 people in the district to take shelters at emergency and permanent tents, he said.
(Uu.O001/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
