Mount Semeru in Indonesia' East Java province erupts on December 1 (Photo: AFP/VNA) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia has been identified as one of the 35 countries with the highest natural disaster risk, based on the number of fatalities in natural disasters between 2015 and 2020, said head of the country’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Doni Monardo.
At a national seminar on post-disaster recovery on December 15, he said the loss of lives and property in Indonesia over the last five years was huge, elaborating that the archipelago nation has recorded more than 16,400 disasters in which 8,400 people died or went missing and 30.1 million people had to evacuate.
It was worst hit by natural disasters in 2018, when 6,240 people were killed or missing and 10 million had to leave their homes in 3,300 disaster events, he noted.
Indonesia classifies disasters into four groups: the first is related to geology, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis; the second is level-1 hydro meteorological disasters like forest fires and drought; the third is level-2 hydro meteorological disasters such as flash floods, landslides, extreme waves, and whirlwinds; and the last is linked with waste, epidemics, pandemics, and e-waste./.
VNA
