Disaster Management as Public Policy (A Case Study of Flood and Landslide Disaster Management Based on Local Wisdom in East Java, Indonesia)

Abstract

This study aims to assess the flood and landslide disaster management policy based on local wisdom in East Java. The study concludes that the implementation of disaster management policies in East Java has not been done optimally. It is influenced by several factors. They are: the level of technical difficulty of the problem and the diversity of behavior of public officers and the members of the community; the weak ability to structure a policy decision; as well as the economic conditions of the community members who dominantly work as farmers. This region dominantly consists of rivers and paddy fields which leads to catastrophes. Therefore, this encourages people to initiate disaster management policies on the basis of their local knowledge. Local knowledge related to the mitigation of floods and landslides are still valid in rural communities in East Java in the form of ruwatan ceremony. It is an cleansing ceremony done by the community.  Another local wisdom are in the form of their ability to predict the coming floods and landslides by: (1) observing the characteristic of mountain slopes and their level of river water; (2) observing the existence of dragonflies and birds as the clues; (3) the emergence of new sudden springs; (4) predicting the intensity and the duration of rainfall; and (5) monitoring the flow of the river.

Keywords: Disaster Management, Public Policy, Flood and Landslide, Local Wisdom