Saturday, 17 June 2023, The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Universitas Indonesia again held an Online Seminar with the title “Industry and Community Collaboration Towards a Disaster Resilient Indonesia”. Resilience in dealing with disasters is something that is really needed by the Indonesian people, considering the potential for disasters in this country is very large. Through his speech, Dr. Ir. Asih Setiarini, M.Sc., as Deputy Dean for Education, Research and Student Affairs at FPH UI, said that collaboration between industry and society is important to formulate a more effective strategy in dealing with disasters.
In the presentation entitled “Utilizing Local Knowledge and Knowledge in Disaster Management: Integration and Collaboration” delivered by Prof. dr. Fatma Lestari, M.Sc., Ph.D., Head of Disaster Risk and Reduction Center UI as well as a lecturer at the OSH Department of FPH UI, stated that disaster resilience is very important to build because it relates to human life and the socio-economic conditions of a country. However, currently Indonesia is still facing many challenges to build this resilience. One of the challenges faced is that community preparedness and awareness of disasters is not evenly distributed, and the community does not fully understand disaster risks in their respective areas.
“Therefore, we can use local culture and wisdom as a medium to communicate disasters so that they are more easily understood by the community. For example, the people of Aceh use the word ‘smong’ as a code for a tsunami. This language is easier for the public to understand than terms such as disaster, tsunami, and others,” said Prof. Fatma. Another example of local wisdom that can build disaster resilience is the Gumantar Traditional House in Lombok which did not collapse when it was shaken by an earthquake. “Resilience is local. By using local culture and wisdom, people can more easily build disaster resilience in their respective regions,” added Prof. Fatma.
A disaster-resilient community is the community’s ability to anticipate, reduce the impact, overcome, and recover from the impact when facing a disaster or crisis. This was conveyed by Rafiq Anshori, Plt. Head of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Disaster Management Division. In his presentation, Rafiq raised the theme “Community Strengthening and Community Participation in Disaster Management”. To form a strong and resilient community, there are several criteria that must be met. Some of these include the community knowing and being able to manage disaster risks, being in good health, and being able to fulfill their basic needs in the context of shelter, food, water, and sanitation.
“PMI has several approaches to be able to build a strong and resilient community. First, the community must be well informed and know how to carry out disaster mitigation in their area. Furthermore, the community must also understand that all the efforts we make are based on the needs of the community itself,” said Rafiq. Besides these two things, there are three other approaches, namely a holistic approach based on systems, an approach that focuses on people and upholds inclusiveness, and building climate smart and environmentally sustainable.
Apart from the two speakers, there were also two other speakers, namely Dr. Ir. Eman Widijanto, S.T., MASc., IPU., Vice President of Mining Safety Division of PT Freeport Indonesia and Dr. Ir. Agus Wibowo, M.Sc., Director of BNPB Disaster Management Strategy Development.
The seminar, which was organized by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Master study program, was successful in achieving great enthusiasm with the number of seminar registrants reaching 3,400 people. Going forward, FPH UI will continue to provide education to the public as an effort to improve public health status in Indonesia. (WR)
