JAKARTA: More than half of Indonesia’s population live in areas at risk of landslides, an official said yesterday, with traditional farming methods blamed for the widespread vulnerability.
Some 124 million Indonesians out of a population of around 240 million live in “moderate- to high-risk landslide areas”, National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) official Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, citing a study.
“Population growth and greater volume of rain as a result of climate change have increased the potential for landslides, but the most dominant factor is land degradation from farming activities,” Nugroho said. Twelve people were killed and five are still missing after torrential seasonal rain triggered a landslide in western Java last Monday.
The 2012 study by BNPB, Central Statistics Agency and UN Population Fund found there was a high incidence of landslides on the slopes of the densely populated island of Java. AFP
