President University (PresUniv), which is part of the Building Universities in Leading Disaster Resilience (BUiLD) consortium, held a national webinar Disaster Resilience: Sustainable Green Recovery from the Covid-19 Pandemic, Saturday (12/11). This webinar was guided by Filson Maratur Sidjabat, ST, MT, lecturer of Environmental Engineering Study Program, PresUniv, and presented two speakers, Dr. Rissalwan Habdy Lubis, S. Sos,. M.Sc., Vice-Chair II of IESA (disaster management research cluster), and Ryan Auriol, CEO of Narasea Indonesia and Marine Guard Assistant Econusa Foundation.
Risallwan noted that until October 2021 in Indonesia, there were seven natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones, landslides, forest fires, earthquakes, tidal waves, and drought. To reduce the impact, according to him, it is necessary to implement a Disaster Management Cycle that includes disaster hazard response, recovery, preventive action to reduce adverse impacts, and preparing future steps for co-survival of living things. “The Indonesian government needs to learn from other countries that can improve their economic and health systems quickly, so they do not make the situation worse if a global disaster occurs which requires all community activities to stop temporarily,” said Risaalwan.
Meanwhile, Ryan, an environmental recovery activist, is worried about the waste generated during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, the high use of single-use medical devices, such as masks that do not decompose quickly will cause new problems. So, Ryan continued, Indonesia needs to implement a green recovery which includes several stages, namely the short-term horizon (improvement of the health care system, creating jobs, encouraging economic activity, working on time), mid-term horizon (multiplying go green activities, utilizing available funding), and long-term sustainability (developing long-term growth potential, resilience to disasters, decarbonization and sustainable growth). Ryan said, “There are still many Indonesians who cannot avoid disaster risk due to limited resources and access to information. So, the government together and the community must work together in realizing green recovery in Indonesia.” (Lita Gabriella, PR team. Photo: Lita Gabriella).
Source: https://president.ac.id/p/148-actual/detail/1284-accelerate-post-pandemic-economic-recovery-with-gr