HANG ON - I'LL REMEMBER THE NUMBER SOON

Dial disaster – and hope                                                    

Something awful has happened.  A bad road smash, a fire, a building collapse.  A landslip. There are casualties. You’re first on the scene – who to call?

Take a pick – 110 or 112 for police, 113 for the fire brigade and 118 for an ambulance.  Or 119.

Apart from mnemonists (people with extraordinary memories) and emergency professionals, who could recall the right digits in moments of peak stress?  Having just one number that’s widely known would be a good start.

No disagreement - yet it seems that although the technology has long been available it hasn’t been matched by energy or will or both. 

According to Trisna Daryanti, Head of Infrastructure Evaluation in the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, an integrated emergency services number (IESN) is not in place across the nation. 

Back in 2016 the government announced a trial of an IESN, 112.  This would connect to hospitals, fire stations and police offices in 100 cities. 

“Currently, emergency services have been built by districts and cities to help the community to more easily remember certain numbers,” Ms Daryanti said.

“But with these many numbers making people a little confused, hopefully in the future it can be integrated in 112.”  She said that might take five years.

In Australia it’s 000, in the US and Canada 911 and in much of Europe 112.  Except the UK which uses 999 which all watchers of British TV cop shows know well.  The system started in London in 1937.

Surprisingly Japan, a nation like Indonesia on the Pacific Ring of Fire, continues to use different numbers for separate services.  However in most other areas of emergency management they’re way ahead.

For the past few months the independent educational agency Japan Foundation has been touring an exhibition called Disaster and Design for Saving Lives.  Its last stop was Yogyakarta.

This is the thinking behind the Foundation’s Earth Manual Project: ‘Natural disasters are unfortunately on the increase all around the world - so let us not leave being prepared to someone else.  

’The same is true across borders – we need to communicate more and more beyond our national boundaries … disaster preparedness on our planet begins by exchanging ideas.’

The exhibition shows displays of ingenuity, making do with materials at hand when emergency services are frantic elsewhere.  It draws on lessons learned in many countries, including the Philippines and Thailand.

One simple example is converting cardboard tubes and boxes to fit out first-aid centers with chairs and examination beds.  

Dr Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Badan (Agency) Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG) agrees.  She told The Jakarta Post natural hazards are becoming more complex and uncertain, so preparation is getting more urgent. 

“We need to be transforming our culture to become a resilient society,” she said.  “The National Education Program must continuously include regular practical exercises in disaster risk reduction.”

The Tilly Smith story is the standout model for the value of education.  The ten-year old was on holiday with her parents in 2004 at Thailand’s Mai Khao Beach when the Indian Ocean earthquake struck.  

The girl remembered geography lessons from her school in England and recognized the frothy water as signs of an incoming tsunami though no alert had been sounded.

With just minutes to spare the family warned around 100 holidaymakers who fled to high ground.  There were no casualties at that beach though 10,000 died on other Thai coastlines.

In late July the Olympics will be held in Tokyo. The Meteorological Agency of Japan reports about 2,000 quakes a year.  The Tohoku earthquake in 2011 took almost 16,000 lives. 

Instructions on handling emergencies are being translated into English and other languages ahead of the sports.  Earthquake drills hammering the need to prepare are being run regularly.

New Zealand is rightly known as the Shaky Isles.  It gets about 15,000 quakes a year.  Most are minor, but around 200 are heavy enough to be felt.   The last biggie in 2011 destroyed much of the nation’s second largest city Christchurch and killed 185.

The NZ government funds a ‘Get Ready Get Thru’ campaign presenting community workshops and displays.  It hands out emergency checklists to be stuck on the kitchen fridge where it’s never missed by the famished and thirsty.

The list includes stockpiling torches, batteries, water and food for at least three days.  At schools children are taught to ‘drop, cover and hold’ when the earth moves.  Church services don’t open with prayers but instructions about exit points.  Safety requests to the Deity come later.

Public buildings, offices and apartments without approved earthquake resistance ratings are closed until changes are made.  In Australia new building codes are being enforced in fire-prone areas.  These include using fire-resistant materials and special glazing.  

The media often labels escapes from disasters as ‘miracles’.  Not all can be claimed as divine intervention.  Many are the result of education and planning to which all can subscribe.

The Washington-based Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery reports an average of 289 significant natural disasters and 8,000 deaths a year in Indonesia during the past three decades.

The United Nations University’s World Risk Index ranks Indonesia on the borderline of ‘very high chance of disasters’, though steadily improving as the public become more aware of measures to lessen harm.  

Rapid response is one way to help save lives.  Just one phone number all know.  That’s not uncommon science – it’s commonsense.

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 First published in The Jakarta Post 5 March 2020.