From the MFRI, UGM, and Udayana University Disaster Preparedness FGD "Moving Together for Volcano Eruption Disaster Preparedness"

A slightly different atmosphere was seen at the Besakih Village Head's Wantilan Hall on the morning of Saturday, February 11, 2023. About 150 people listened enthusiastically to the presentations from several resource persons at the front. On that warm morning, various stakeholders consisting of MFRI Japan, JICA, Gadjah Mada University and the Faculty of Tourism at Udayana University held a FGD with the theme Preparedness and Capacity Building for the Slope of Mount Agung Community in the hall of the Office of the Head of Besakih Village, Rendang, Karangasem Regency. The activity was attended by around 150 participants consisting of school committees, teachers, school principals, village heads and chiefs of Besakih customary villages, Basarnas, and BPBD. The FGD aims to socialize and educate about mitigation in the slopes of Mount Agung. The FGD is part of the AGAA project.

The involvement of the Faculty of Tourism at Udayana University in this collaboration is because the slope area of ​​Mount Agung is a tourist visit area including Besakih Temple and several surrounding DTWs, so outreach to tour managers and tourists is also needed.

The AGAA project, an extension of Astungkara Giri Agung Aman, is an activity to build a disaster-resilient community through the use of local universities as a basis for managing low-frequency, large-scale disasters on the slopes of Mount Agung. The project is run by the Faculty of Tourism, Udayana University (Unud) in collaboration with Mount Fuji Research Institute (MFRI), NPO Volcano, Japan and FMIPA Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta with funding from the Japanese Government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) . Previously they had also conducted volcanic eruption disaster training activities for students and teacher representatives in Sebudi Village and Besakih Village in December 2022. The training focuses on experiments and explanations of volcanic eruptions from a scientific point of view to better understand the structure and characteristics of Mount Agung.

Head of the Karangasem BNPB Headquarters Ida Bagus Ketut Arimbawa, representing the Karangasem regent, on that occasion said he welcomed the initiative from the AGAA project because the people on the slopes of Mount Agung still need support from all parties in terms of disaster preparedness. "In accordance with the character of our society, which is so easy to forget important experiences including the eruption of Mount Agung, through preparedness socialization activities, this is constantly reminded so that it can become part of public awareness. So that when a disaster occurs, people are ready to do things to save themselves and their families," he explained.

From the Japanese side as Chair of the MFRI, Doctor Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Director of the Mount Fuji disaster prevention research center explained how Japan has been educating its citizens on an ongoing basis even under normal conditions. "Mount Fuji has never erupted in the last 300 years, but we are still conducting disaster preparedness education," he said. On this occasion, there were also present the sharing of two government representatives of the two districts where Mount Fuji is located, namely the city of Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi by Mr. Takuma Kuwabara and Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi represented by Mr. Keigo Fujimaki.

Meanwhile, a researcher from Geophysics Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences UGM, Doctor Wiwit Suryanto, explained that the theme of building a disaster-resilient community with local universities as a basis for handling low and large frequency disasters was deliberately chosen so that post-project socialization activities could still take place simultaneously. He also explained that Indonesia and Japan have similarities, that is, they both have many volcanoes, but volcanoes in Indonesia are much more active than volcanoes in Japan. Apart from that, another similarity is that it turns out that people in the two countries both have strong beliefs about volcanoes, which in certain situations end up being ignorant and becoming victims of disasters.

On this occasion, the process of a volcanic eruption was also demonstrated using acrylic aquarium equipment and a three-dimensional map model. The participants roared around the two equipment until late in the afternoon.