REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANDA ACEH -- The Acting Governor of Aceh, Major General (Ret) Soedarmo, urged the people in Aceh to care more about the issues related to disaster when commemorating 12 Years of Tsunami, on Monday (26/12). He asked people to refrain from any acts that could potentially damage the environment.
"The commemoration is one of the encouragements for people in Aceh to be more concerned about the disaster issues. Moreover, Aceh is included into regions which were located in disaster-prone areas," said him as quoted on the welcome speech of the 12th commemoration of the Tsunami, Monday (26/12).
He gave an example, after the Tsunami, there were several other natural disasters occurred in Aceh, such as floods and landslides in Southeast Aceh, Gayo Lues, and Pidie, floods in the west coast of Aceh, the earthquake in Central Aceh in 2013 and lastly the earthquake in Pidie Jaya on December 7.
"Some of those disasters were caused by nature destruction, where people have role to do so. Therefore, on this occasion, I invite all of us to be able to refrain ourselves from doing any acts that may damage the natural environment," said Soedarmo.
On the same occasion, he appealed to people and institutions to continue improving their knowledge about disasters in accordance to disaster mitigation. The Acehnese people needed to develop community disaster care at the district level. The existence of the community, said him, was considered important to help the government to disseminate information on disaster management techniques.
"It is true that Aceh is located in disaster-prone areas, but we do not have to be panic in facing the condition. If we have enough knowledge of disaster, the disaster mitigation efforts will be better," said Soedarmo.
Previously, on December 26, 2004, Tsunami swept Aceh and resulted in the death of more than 200 thousand inhabitants. The tsunami which came after an earthquake measuring in 9 Richter scale, centered in the southwest of the Indian Ocean and caused severe damage in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh.
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