The disaster risk reduction program continues to be carried out by Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Semarang City. In 2019, BPBD had the initiative to increase community resilience to disasters by optimizing the role of dasawisma. One of the activities carried out was by conducting socialization to PKK or women group representatives related to disaster risk reduction initiatives on March 14, 2019 in Central Semarang District. IKUPI became part of the activity by delivering material related to risk reduction initiatives that can be carried out by dasawisma. When disaster happens, the majority of victims are women (IASC, 2006 in Editta, 2013). This is because women have physical limitations and when there is a disaster they have the “domestic duties”. When disaster occurs, women will first save their children or perhaps parents before saving themselves. Therefore, the effort to empower dasawisma for disaster risk reduction needs to be optimized. Capacity building and knowledge related to disaster risk reduction efforts need to be carried out since the pre-disaster stage. Dasawisma needs to be the pro-active agents in disaster risk reduction efforts since the pre-disaster stage. Efforts to enhance the role of dasawisma in disaster risk reduction (Hastuti, 2016) are listed as below:
- Increased awareness in understanding the environmental situations & threat of danger. Identify the types of disasters, where they are located, and analyze the causes of the disasters.
- Increased understanding of vulnerability and the ability to measure the capacity. Identify who are the vulnerable people in the area, what are the vulnerable properties or assets, and the extent of disaster management capacity that they have.
- Increased ability to assess the risks faced both as individual family members & the community. Assessing risks from disasters that occur economically, health, and other impacts.
- Increased the ability to plan & implement the disaster risk reduction actions
After understanding the causes of the effects of disasters, disaster risk reduction efforts can be established, both structural and non-structural. In addition, the stakeholders can also be mapped to support these efforts, whether from the government, private sector, NGOs, the community, or individually.
Some efforts that can be done by dasawisma to reduce the flood risk are as follows: stop littering in any place; education about the importance of waste management and maintaining environmental quality to children, PKK members, and the community; 3 R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle); protect rivers / waterways from waste and waste; and maintaining a green open space, as well as greening. Related to landslides, PKK can play a role in assisting the construction of vetiver grass and other plants to minimize the landslide impact, as well as through greening programs. The initiatives are expected to increase the community resilience on disasters by the active role of dasawisma in Semarang City.