More People Impacted by Disasters in 2021: BNPB

TheIndonesia.co - Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported that more people in Indonesia were impacted by disasters in 2021 even though there were fewer events compared to the previous years.

“It indicates that impacts from disasters to be even more significant on human’s lives this year,” head of the Agency, Lieutenant Gen. Suharyanto, said during a virtual conference on Wednesday, December 29, as reported by Antara.

He revealed that, in total, the number of disasters that happened in Indonesia during 2021 decreased by 34 percent with 3,058 occurrences.

Meanwhile, compared to last year, total death toll increased by 76.1 percent, and the number of people who were injured increased extremely by 2,180 percent.  

There was also an increase on the number of people who were impacted by and forced to take shelter during disasters (24.1 percent) as well as the number of damaged houses (115.9 percent).

According to Suharyanto, floods, landslides, extreme weather, and tidal waves contributed to 89.7 percent of total disasters this year (2,072). He also revealed the six provinces with most frequent disaster events: Central Java, West Java, East Java, Aceh, South Sulawesi, and Central Kalimantan.

With a high number of occurrences, Suharyanto noted that mitigation efforts need to be enhanced in those areas.

“Improvement is needed in those areas in disaster mitigation, education, and management sectors,” he warned.