Floods are not merely natural events, but rather alarms signaling damage that has not been properly managed. This was emphasized by Dr Dwi Retno Hapsari, lecturer in Communication and Extension at the Department of Communication and Community Development, Faculty of Human Ecology, IPB University.
“Floods are actually alerts or symptoms. When floods occur, it means that something in nature has been damaged because it has not been managed properly,” she said in Muslimah Agricultural Talks #4 organized by the Muslimah Intellectual Community at IPB University.
According to her, Indonesia is a ‘disaster laboratory’, so mitigation needs to be carried out continuously.
She criticized the frequent mitigation of disasters. Mitigation tends to be reactive, so the impact of disasters continues to recur like an ‘annual agenda’ that is not comprehensively addressed from before to after the disaster.
“When it comes to public communication, the recurring pattern we find is that when the floods recede, the news also recedes.”
Dr Retno emphasized, “Mitigation through public communication needs to be carried out by multiple parties, namely ABCGM, which consists of academics, business, community, government, and media.”
“The presence of the government is extremely important because they are the ones with the power to collaborate with these multiple parties,” he concluded.
This discussion aimed to raise awareness among students and environmental activists about recurring disaster issues. The event was attended by female activists from various student organizations and environmental activists at IPB University.
Through this forum, Dr Retno hoped that collective awareness about the importance of public communication based mitigation could continue to be strengthened, so that disaster management would no longer be merely a reaction, but rather a systematic and sustainable measure. (IAAS/HLF)
