Accelerate Disaster Management, Minister of Social Affairs Suggests Creating a Communication Group

JAKARTA (July 22, 2021) – To speed up the handling of natural disasters, Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini proposes to create a communication group that includes the contact numbers of regional heads, regional secretaries, social offices, and various other related parties.

"This is based on experience in the Province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), we have difficulty and cannot contact the regional head, regional secretary, social office as well as other related parties," said Minister Risma in Jakarta, Tuesday (21/7/2021).

When a natural disaster occurs, said Risma, when there are communication groups, there is hope that not all groups die, but there is one group that is active and can be contacted to ask what kind of communication and what steps to take.

“Learning from the earthquake in Malang, there is information that the area is badly damaged in Dampit. I also checked through Tagana and reported that the residents were still sleeping comfortably and even had time to take photos and it turned out that in other places it was even worse," she said.

The Minister of Social Affairs' proposal for tiered communication groups starting from the central government and then regional governments, both provincial and district and city, will make handling natural disasters faster.

"The groups are so important and become an effective communication medium as part of a disaster management system that can move faster," she said.

The advantage of having communication groups is that it will also be fast for disaster management interventions that can be directly implemented by their respective fields.