Natuna, Riau Islands (ANTARA) - Social granaries will be established in Serasan Island, Natuna district, Riau Islands province, as a disaster mitigation attempt, Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini informed on Friday. "The area is difficult (to be reached), hence later we will build social granaries, the village head can propose (for the establishment of the granaries),” she said while visiting landslide refugees in Payak village, East Serasan sub-district here.
A social granary is a refuge post, which also stores food, clothes, diapers, generators, and portable solar cells with a power of one thousand watts, she added . "We will prepare it (the granaries). I consider it (establishing the granaries) per island, but seeing the conditions (the difficult geographical landscape) like this, (I think) this (Payak) village also needs to have the same (social granary),” the minister said.
According to her, the granaries should not only be constructed in one location on Serasan Island, but in several areas. Hence, it is necessary to map the needs of each region without any regard to the administrative boundaries on the establishment of the granaries, she said. "This area is secluded, therefore, granaries should also be prepared in remote areas," Rismaharini added.
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Furthermore, local residents will also be trained by the emergency response unit (Tagana) so that they gain the skills needed to set up refugee tents and manage public kitchens, as an independent emergency response attempt, she said. "Later, Tagana and my staff (the Social Affairs Ministry’s officers) will conduct the training for disaster mitigation to reduce casualties," she added.
The minister said that according to her aerial observation of the condition of Serasan Island, it still looked green and was filled with dense forests, meaning that the landslide was probably caused by the weather. "Earlier, I saw from above that the island is still very green, meaning that it (the landslide on Monday) was due to natural factors influenced by the weather. However, the potential for disaster still exists, thus a mitigation attempt is needed," she added.
After talking with affected residents, she asked the head of Payak village to quickly propose a plan for making a social barn so that it could be realized immediately.
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