WEST SUMATRA PARTICIPATED IN USNS’ BIGGEST ANNUAL MEETING ON DISASTER MITIGATION IN INDO-PASIFIC REGION
United States Naval States (USNS), the largest hospital ship in the world, once again harbored in Indonesia; now in the western coast of Bengkulu to run its 13th social mission Pacific Partnership 2018. Its objective is to enhance regional coordination in areas especially in medical readiness and preparedness to cope both man-made and natural disaster.
This social mission was held in March, 29th until April, 12th. It was the largest annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in Indo-Asia-Pacific involving more than 800 participants of civilian and army from United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, France, Peru, South Korean, Singapore and Japan collaborated with participants from local government, Indonesian Navy and six provincial disaster management agencies (BPBD) under Pasific Disaster Center (PDC). This six bpbds are West Sumatera, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, East Java, Semarang and Bali.
Considering the earthquake and tsunami risks of Sumatran coastal line, Pacific Partnership 2018 called on stakeholders to put their head together on formulating common understanding on disaster risks prevention. In this special occasion, BPBD of West Sumatra was represented by Mega Rizaldi, a personnel of Pusat Pengendalian dan Operasi of West Sumatra BPBD (Control and Operation Centre), a unit responsible for fast and early response in case of disaster. Along with other participants, he acted as a team performing Table Top Exercise (TTx) which took place in Bengkulu Governor’s Office and Field Training Exercise (FTx) held in the Indian Ocean seashore near Bengkulu.
These exercise was so important to formulate and simulate necessary actions whenever the ‘real’ disaster strike. Especially for West Sumatra, which recently experienced devastating earthquakes (2009) and tsunami (2010), killed more than a thousand citizens. These risks are remain high, bearing in mind the geological position of West Sumatra which prone to various disasters. Therefore an extensive exercise involving all stakeholders and community is a necessity to build regional readiness and preparedness as weel as to strengthen community resiliency and toward disaster.
USNS Mercy has begun Pacific Partnership as an ongoing Civic Assistance mission to the tsunami-devastated regions of South East Asia, designed to "Prepare in Calm to Respond in Crisis" since 2005. She visited several ports in the South Pacific Ocean including the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Timor Leste.. The ship's primary mission was to provide humanitarian assistance to these countries, and its staff included several non-governmental organizations, doctors from the armed services of several countries, as well as active-duty and reserve military providers from many branches of the US armed forces. (fvt)
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