Online Seminar Series 11 of the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Universitas Indonesia (UI) was held by students from the FPH UI Postgraduate Study Program Specializing in Public Health Nutrition 2022 on December 9, 2023. “Flood Alert in Indonesia: Appropriate Disaster Management Efforts” was the theme appointed by presenting four speakers with different backgrounds.
“This seminar provides an opportunity for students to contribute to conveying information and education to various parties regarding handling nutritional health during disasters, especially floods, as well as providing hope in increasing collective preparedness in facing them,” said Dr. Ir. Trini Sudiarti, M.Si., Chair of the Nutrition Department, FPH UI in her speech.
Dr. Ir. Asih Setiarini, M.Sc., Deputy Dean for Education, Research and Student Affairs, FPH UI also gave a warm welcome to speakers, students, and other audiences.
“The role of nutrition is very influential in disaster events and management. Attention to age groups is one of the important things to pay attention to considering that the nutritional needs required by each group are different. So, there needs to be the ability and maturity to make contributions in the affected communities,” said Dr. Asih.
Flood and Health Crisis Disaster Management Policy in Indonesia presented by dr. Widiana Kusumasari A., M.K.M., from the Indonesian Ministry of Health’s Health Crisis Center, was the material for the first session. Doctor Widiana explained that all regions of Indonesia have a moderate or even high level of disaster risk. Nevertheless, the disaster management capacity of districts/cities or provinces is still not optimally fulfilled.
Reflecting on the last Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia found that its national health system was still weak in being able to deal with disasters. Thus, the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) is trying to make changes by launching a health system transformation in the 2021-2024 period. “Essential health services must continue and continue to be implemented to avoid a health crisis,” said Dr. Widiana.
“The organization of health crisis management is carried out using a health cluster system which houses other sub-clusters to increase coordination, collaboration and integration in handling health crises to meet the needs of health service delivery,” he added.
In an emergency situation, the health cluster will be activated to become a Health Emergency Operational Center (HEOC). Health crisis management focuses on efforts to reduce disaster risk by conducting risk studies, strengthening risk management, planning, and budgeting for risk reduction, preparing contingency plans and simulations, developing an early warning system, forming a rapid reaction team, and preparing health logistics.
Nutrition Policy and Intervention in Flood Management in Indonesia was then presented by Tiska Yumeida, S.K.M., M.A. M.S.E., from the Directorate of Nutrition and KIA, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia. Tiska explained that the nutrition sub-cluster was one of the health clusters that received command to respond to problems in the field. “The nutritional response will remain the same in every disaster, namely by focusing on Infant and Child Feeding (IYCF), malnutrition, nutritional supplementation, and nutritional support for other vulnerable groups,” explained Tiska.
Furthermore, material related to Jakarta Flood Mitigation and Preparedness was discussed by Mohammad Yohan, S.T., S.E., M.A.P., from BPBD DKI Jakarta Province. Mohammad Yohan summarized that there are three potential floods in Jakarta, namely river overflows, local rain and tidal waves. There is a flood contingency plan carried out by the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) together with the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the Naval Hydro-Oceanography Service (Dishidros AL), and experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) to analyze rainfall. high that will occur. Weather modification techniques are also part of efforts to overcome the Jabodetabek flood disaster. The efforts made are to drop rain in safe areas such as the Sunda Strait and Java Sea and regulate the rainfall so that it does not get too high.
The role of humanitarian institutions in optimizing nutrition and public health during flood disasters in Indonesia was the next topic presented by Dedi Setiawan, M.M., from BSI Maslahat. In disaster conditions, Humanitarian Institutions play a role in assessing the needs for emergency response, recovery and rehabilitation-reconstruction, environmental improvement, public infrastructure and facilities, health and mental health services, health promotion and health logistics, data, and information, as well as disease control and environmental health. The concrete role of humanitarian institutions in aspects of nutrition and public health includes the creation of integrated post-disaster response plans through to the rehabilitation-reconstruction phase as well as the implementation and monitoring and evaluation of integrated post-disaster health programs which may require cross-clusters and sub-clusters. “It is very important to provide more investment in the period before a disaster (pre-disaster) because it can increase capacity when a disaster occurs and the community has good resilience and resilience,” concluded Dedi Setiawan, in his presentation. (ITM)
