Building a Culture of Safety and Resilience: 2 Days Assessment in Mentawai, West Sumatra

By Tito Panggabean

Responding to the emergency situation caused by earthquake followed by tsunami on Monday, October 25 at 9 pm, I was assigned as the first team coming up to Mentawai Island along with the first logistical support. When the earthquake happened, I was in Pariaman City of West Sumatra. The quake was felt like swinging.

I left by Wednesday night and arrived in Sikakap, in the District of North Pagai, the following morning. As an Information Center, Sikakap Command Post provides information about the victims and the areas being damaged by tsunami. I visited victims with severe and minor injuries in GKPM Church which was changed into emergency health centre in Sikakap. The injured people generally come from villages in North Pagai. They say there are many victims coming from the village of North Pagai than South Pagai. To my knowledge the epicenter is in southern Pagai, but why the most near the epicenter is not much loss of life?

The following day I went to South Pagai using "ojeg". (Ojeg is mode of road transportation when you rent motorcycle and the driver who will take you to your destination on pre-agreed price). I went there to assess the situation and find out number of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Before I left, I had this question in mind. “Is it true that not many casualties in the south? After one hour drive from Sikakap, we passed by a village that was hit by 2007 earthquake. People of this village were relocated to higher ground relocation area. However, the relocation program seems to fail saving people from disaster. At the night of earthquake and tsunami on October 25, 2010, many of villagers were staying at this original village, and thus, many have swept away and died by Tsunami.

Further to the South, about 3 hours driving from Sikakap, we met many people in displacement camps. Their villages were destroyed and rolled away the waves of tsunami. The villagers reported no casualties in the villages. This is surprising to me. The fact that people living close to earthquake epicenter are safe and no casualties reported. My first assumption was the closer to the earthquake epicenter, the more victims and/or casualties would be. But I was apparently wrong, very wrong.

To the fact that there are no casualties in the village close to the earthquake epicenter, I could only analyze that people in the south island are more aware of and obedient to follow standard procedures to avoid the dangers of tsunami. As the siren rang they immediately fled to higher ground. Therefore, even though their villages were destroyed, they have no casualties. On the other direction, in North Pagai, people did not get out to higher ground even though tsunami early warning sirene rang. Some survivals from North Pagai said that the siren was ranging less strongly than one in 2007 earthquake. Based on this, people thought that the earthquake scale was not as dangerous as earthquake in 2007. They therefore underestimated the warning. A wounded local fisherman says "... because the quake was less strong than before, so we think tsunami can not happen...... If we get out as soon as he heard the sirens, then there would be no loss of life." Surely this is a matter of awareness of early warning comply and to make people get used to remain alert about the dangers of tsunamis.

In the past five years, disaster risk reduction programs have been socialized by the government, NGOs and other stakeholders to the community in Mentawai. The program is basically to increase public awareness about risk reduction (vulnerabilities and hazards). Such raising awareness program employs participatory and community-basd approach.

The role of community in disaster risk management is critically important and effective in responding and addressing local problems and needs, capitalizes local knowledge and expertise, and improve program sustainability.  The participatory and/or community-based approach in disaster management improves genuine 'ownership' of projects by the community as it strengthens technical and organizational capacities, and empowers people by enabling them to tackle disaster challenges. Local people and organizations are the main actors in risk reduction and disaster response in any case; therefore, a comprehensive introduction about the DRR in community is a must. There are at least few basic concepts that are necessary and important to be introduced to community, namely:

Preparedness activities to help communityto better prepare before disasters attack. They need to learn about disasters, their capacity and coping mechanism, and their vulnerabilities, and develop contingency plan. Children and adults can identify risky and safe areas, evacuation routes, and vulnerable groups.

Early warning activities

Introduce and develop practical disaster warning systems for communities, such as community radio / broadcast, disaster focal point and alarming system. Community needs to make sure that everyone in their communities understands and know what to do when they hear the warning.

Mitigation activities help reducing risks from Disasters. Communities usually learn to reduce risks after a disaster.

Activities to promote resilience help communities and children to gain skills to cope and recover from Disasters.

Learning the lessons from several disasters throughout Indonesia in the last 5 years, let's create a culture of safety and resilience at the community.