Mengenal Program Siaga Bencana di Nias dan Mentawai

Community Based Disaster Preparedness for Western Sumatera Islands
SurfAid International is implementing a three-year Community Based Disaster Management and Risk Reduction initiative funded by AusAID (Australian Agency for International Development) to develop effective disaster preparedness and management systems for the western islands of Sumatra.

The Community Based Disaster Preparedness for Sumatra Western Islands Program is designed primarily to work together with and strengthen disaster management and preparedness capacity for 53 target villages – 31 target villages in Nias Island, North Sumatra and 22 target villages in the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra. The direct beneficiaries of the project are approximately 35,000 people from the 53 villages which are spread over eight sub-districts (kecamatan). The indirect beneficiaries are the households in neighbouring villages who will have opportunities to better prepare their communities via transfer of knowledge and cross-utilisation of resilience mechanisms. Many of the total population of 770,000 in Nias and Mentawai will benefit from a community awareness campaign that will include radio and other multimedia educational materials such as print, film and community celebration activities.

Capacity building of sub-district and district disaster management institutions will assist in providing long-term sustainable disaster management support to all villages both directly and indirectly linked to the program. The program has been designed to create ownership of initiatives and activities at the village, sub-district and district levels. Strategic workshops and meetings will facilitate access by the target communities to district planning processes. An exit strategy has been designed to enable follow-up to key program outcomes as well as unintended impact by identified stakeholders (duty bearers).

The program will be implemented over a three year period. The initial six–month program inception phase (October 2006-April 2007) allowed for the assembly of human and non-human resources, development of a detailed implementation plan and identification of vulnerable communities, development of a public information strategy, and program socialization with the relevant authorities in the initial target provinces and districts. A key activity associated with this inception phase was a series of workshops at the target district level to present the program and invite discussion and feedback from stakeholders.

The program has three major components: 1) Community awareness and education campaign; 2) Community contingency planning and community based disaster management training; and 3) Community based disaster mitigation and risk reduction activities.

WHY DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IS NEEDED IN NIAS & MENTAWAI ISLANDS?
Sumatra is an active continental margin where tectonic processes are controlled by the three major fault systems of the Sunda Trench, the Sumatran Fault and the Mentawai Fault (John Milsom, University College London, UK). The Island groups of the Western Islands have been formed by the subduction of the oceanic plate under the continental plate in an ongoing process. There is Palaeoseismic evidence of large recurrent earthquakes and tsunamis. Caltech and LIPI research shows signs of elevation of parts of the archipelago in 1600, 1797 and 1833 due to massive earthquakes, with eventual receding to their original state. The most recent earthquake has thrust parts of the archipelago up by up to 2 metres – raising reef above current high tide mark. Other areas have fallen by up to 1 metre, such as occurred in parts of the Banyaks (Norman Vant Hoff, field report, July 2005).
The aftershock pattern observable after big seismic events suggests the following probability of more large earthquakes in the Western Islands during the next two years: A 12.5% chance of another magnitude 8 earthquake. A 33.3% chance of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. (Lucy Jones, U.S. Geological Survey, April 11, 2005). There are many locations along the Mentawai fault which are located in a depth of water sufficient to generate an associated tsunami. Communities are vulnerable not just to earthquakes and tsunami disasters but a range of other natural disasters including landslides, flooding and epidemics. The likelihood of another major natural disaster in the Western Islands of Sumatra, combined with the ongoing vulnerability of much of the population, suggests a need for both enhanced community disaster preparedness and risk reduction strategies.
Community based disaster preparedness provides an opportunity to work together with local communities on structured plans, in association with the dissemination of clear information about the current levels of risk. It provides a chance to review traditional knowledge and draw upon local resources and wisdom. Working in conjunction with the district and regional authorities will ensure that preparedness plans feed properly into government disaster planning processes and support their roles. Compromised ecosystems are more heavily impacted by disasters than those that are under sustainable environmental management regimes (UNEP, 2005).

SurfAid was created in 1999 to respond to the needs of the communities in the Mentawai Islands in a professional, transparent and community-empowering way. The disaster response capacity of SurfAid has been proven through the two most recent disasters in the region – 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis and 2005 Nias earthquake. Experience gained through these emergency responses can be transferred into operating procedures and logistical knowledge. Knowledge and operating capacity in the geo-marine environment, and established relationships with communities and the governments, places SurfAid in a unique position to implement a community disaster preparedness program.