The Mentawai Islands, lie off the coast of West Sumatra along the Sunda ‘Mega-thrust’ fault. The islands are in one of the most-seismically active parts of Indonesia and are highly prone to both earthquakes and tsunami.
The islands are remote, a 12-hour ferry ride form the mainland, and suffer from poor communications. In the event of a disaster, it will be a considerable time before any outside assistance arrives. Communities in the Mentawai, therefore, need to be prepared to respond themselves in the event of any disaster.
ASB in partnership with the German Federal Foreign Office is implementing a programme in the Mentawai to ensure that villagers are equipped to face and respond to disasters. The project supports efforts towards the establishment of Resilient Villages by the Indonesian government.
This pilot project builds on the success of an ASB and German Federal Foreign Office project that delivered practical disaster risk reduction (DRR) information and established earthquake drills in all primary schools in the Mentawai islands last year.This project was the first project to cover all islands of the remote Mentawai.
The project is to provide DRR, First Aid and Search and Rescue training to community members. Village level DRR forums and teams are also to be established in line with Resilient Village criteria. Community members are also to be equipped with first-response, First Aid, search and rescue, communications equipment and emergency shelters.
The project will also examine and generate best practices for establishing resilient villages in remote areas in Indonesia.
The project is being implemented in Katurei village in Southwest Siberut. Katurei, and its four sub-villages, are only accessible by boat. The village has no electricity in three sub-villages. There are some generatorsin the village; however, these are seldom used due to the high-cost of fuel and limited supply of fuel to the islands. There is no telephone lines or mobile phone access. Community members only have limited access to water for drinking and household use. Water is collected from the river or from a few unprotected springs. Much trade is still by barter; for food in particular. Cash income for households stems mosly from the sale of shellfish to occassional traders from the mainland. Produce such as fruit and vegetables are grown for household consumption.
ASB’s Team Leader in the Mentawai Dr Adrien Picquout says:
‘The conditions and infrastructure, and lack of potential food supplies, in the village make this community extremely vulnerable. The situation is made worse by having no effective way to communicate with individuals and government outside of the village. The village is on a peninsula and only has access by small boat to the rest of Siberut at high-tide, when a small channel becomes accessible. This programme is, therefore, extremely important in building the capacities of community members to better respond to the very real risk of disasters that they face.’
ASB would like to thank the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs and the German Federal Foreign Office for their ongoing support and collaboration.
