380 Die in Indonesia This Year Due to Natural Disasters

Jakarta (Antara) - A total of 380 people in Indonesia have died as a result of natural disasters that occurred between January and August this year, according to data revealed by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB). "There were 972 large- and medium-scale natural disasters that happened in the country from January to August 2014, which left 380 people dead," BNPB Acting Secretary Dody Ruswandi stated here on Tuesday. In the meantime, he pointed out that 1.7 million others had suffered as a result of the disaster events and had to evacuate. In view of that, he emphasized the need to strengthen the natural disaster mitigation forces during the opening of a national convention on the national draft operation standard for disaster mitigation. In this regard, the BNPB will establish a certification institution for personnel to work on field in cooperation with the manpower ministry. "Climate change and global warming will be given special attention as they have been proven to trigger natural disasters," he remarked. (*)