Southeast Sulawesi’s Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) has said it has continued to coordinate with districts and city BPBDs across the province for the purpose of mitigation of natural disasters.

“In the case of natural disasters, the ones that are more knowledgeable and play a role in first aid are districts and city BPBDs,” Southeast Sulawesi BPBD secretary Andrian noted here on Tuesday.

“However, if there are technical issues that districts or cities are not capable of handling, then the provincial BPBD will step in,” he elaborated.

Southeast Sulawesi BPBD has continued to coordinate with all stakeholders, including technical institutions, such as the Social and General Work Office, BMKG (Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency), the military, and police for disaster mitigation, he said.

This action has been driven by data from the central BNPB, which has pegged many districts or cities in Southeast Sulawesi in the high-risk category, based on the Natural Disaster Risk Index, he informed.

The high-risk locations are Baubau, North Kolaka, Muna, West Muna, North Buton, Konawe, North Konawe, South Konawe, Buton, Central Buton, South Buton, and Bombana, he added.

Meanwhile, Kendari, Kolaka, East Kolaka, and Wakatobi have been categorized as medium risk, he said.

While there have been no meetings for disaster training activities on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, communication is still on with district and city BPBDs, Andrian informed.

The agency is also coordinating with a team of 100 volunteers who are on standby round the clock, he added.

“Beyond having volunteers spread out in the entire districts and cities, we also have 20 personnel from the Quick Reaction Team (TRC) on standby,” he said.

He added that the TRC has been trained to be ready 24 hours.

He also urged the people to monitor the information conveyed by the BMKG concerning weather conditions due to the La Nina before conducting activities.

Source: Antara News