Indonesia works to improve multi-hazard early warning systems

"We continue to improve early warning programs for tsunami, then for other disasters," BNPB head Suharyanto said in a Jan. 28 statement as quoted by Indonesia’s national news agency Antara.

According to the official, during the 2015 El Nino, wildfires occurred on some 2.6 million hectares of forest. The land and forest fires ravaged 1.6 million hectares of land in 2016 and only 1.1 million hectares in 2023.

He said even though the areas of forest and land on fire were quite large, no haze was detected crossing beyond the borders of neighboring countries.

"The key is collaboration and prevention. We carried out these tasks faster; in fact, the El Nino in 2023 was more severe than that of 2019, but the impact in 2019 was bigger. The disaster response equipment and expenses used for the 2013 disaster was relatively smaller than those of 2019," he explained as cited by Antara.

He went on to say that the challenges in the future will be hard. At the beginning of 2024, floods hit several regions in Indonesia.

The BNPB is currently on alert for Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in Flores district, East Nusa Tenggara, as the volcano has entered the 4th level or alert level status, displacing 6,000 residents.