As an archipelagic nation of some 17,000 islands, Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Changes in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events are the main problems. The impacts of climate change are beginning to be felt in various regions, especially those with high levels of vulnerability, one of which is East Java Province. Besides the impacts of climate change, the intensity of disasters in East Java have also increased in the last five years. The types of disasters that often occur are floods and landslides, in addition to earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, tornadoes, fires, terrorism and volcanic eruptions. Blitar Regency is an area especially prone to impacts of climate change in East Java Province. In the period of January to July 2016, Blitar Regency has faced disaster situations such as fire, flood, landslide, tornado, drought, lightning strike, pyroclastic flow, storm and tidal flood. Recently there have been severe landslide and flooding in the region. The impacts of climate change are not only the responsibility of the Government, but also that of the community down to the village level.
PATTIRO through APIK USAID support is strengthening the active role of communities in Semen Village and Sutojayan Subdistrict to adapt to climate change and encouraging the Village and Subdistrict Governments to integrate community action plans in dealing with climate change into the village and subdistrict development planning policies.
To improve the community’s capacity to deal with disasters caused by climate change, on December 20-21, 2017, PATTIRO organized Disaster Training for the communities in Semen Village and Sutojayan Subdistrict, organized in the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Forum (Forum API-PRB). “This training aims to improve community understanding of mitigation efforts and adaptation to the impacts of climate change and improve people’s ability to conduct emergency response activities”, said Imam Karya Bakti, PATTIRO Program Manager.
“With this training, it is hoped that the community will be trained and ready to respond to disasters occurring in their village or outside their village, so that they are ready and understand what to do when disaster occurs in their environment”, added Imam.
The training presented speakers from the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Blitar Regency with training materials covering the concept of disaster emergency response, rapid response teams, and mechanisms for emergency rescue, health and logistics. “The presence of resource persons from BPBD is very helpful to us in the efforts to synergize disaster programs undertaken by the local government to the API-PRB Forum can be a government partner in disaster management”, added Imam again.
The communities of the API-PRB Forum also benefited from the training they get. “With this training, we get new knowledge about disaster, disaster early warning, and the API-PRB Forum should lead and be alert when disaster strikes,” said Kusnadi, head of the Sutojayan Urban Village API-PRB Forum.
The same was also felt by the Government of Semen Village, namely that by participating in disaster training they understand how to face disasters. “We understand better about what should be done in the event of a disaster. It is hoped that with the training and the existence of this program, the community is getting solid and supported by all parties, benefiting the society, and the village is getting resilient in facing disasters,” said Slamet Suyanto, Head of Semen Village.
Highlighting the level of participation of women in this training, according to Beni Trimaningsih, Facilitator of Semen Village, they are not only present but also actively participate in the discussion. “The involvement of women has been very good, and they are active not only in this training, but also in various other forum activities. They represent various organizational elements in the village, such as PKK, LPMD, Posyandu, Village Cadres, BPD, Karang Taruna and members of API-PRB Forum “, said Beni.
