This was the gist of an interview with Masdiana Abdul Samat and Dk Siti UmmiKalthum Pg Haji Muhammad who recently completed JENESYS East Asia Future Leaders Programme in Japan where they learnt a lot about the significance of disaster prevention from disaster management centres and leaders.
Prominent Japanese environmental leaders believe that getting the society to work together as a whole during the many natural disaster in Japan is key to providing solutions and plans to safeguard the populace and environment.
"We visited the Ministry of Youth Affairs and was briefed on what they did to cope with the Kobe earthquake in 1995. We also went for lectures and visited Bwa Town affected by earthquakes and heavy flooding. In Tokyo, we toured Katsushita City, a low-lying area. We also went to Maiko High School where the curriculum has emphasis on dealing with disasters," said Masdiana and Dk Siti Ummi Kalthum.
The Bulletin was told that some Maiko High School students travelled to Chile to provide support to the quake affected areas. The 'A' Level students at Maiko High School also delivered presentations on community services, disaster management, evacuation drills and survival skills among others.
Getting the community ready for disasters will also strengthen ties and encourage them to interact and work closely in forming ideas to tackle disasters and implement ways of 'rescuing' the environment.
The Bulletin also learnt that the Japanese community do not rely heavily on the government and they created their own funds where everyone has equal contribution.
"Everyone works from bottom to top and not vice versa. They perform their tasks without any control (from authorities)."
During the pair's visit to the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre, they experienced and saw the effects of an earthquake through 3D simulation. An interesting point highlighted during the visit was 'hazard mapping' where the individuals were taught to navigate strategic escape routes should a natural disaster strike.
"The communities will map out certain safety areas whenever natural disaster happens".
The duo also attended lectures at the Disaster Reduction and Human Institution where they learnt of five ways implemented in Japan to reduce the effect of floodings.
With a handful of experiences and knowledge learnt from the visits, the pair expressed their willingness to share basic disaster prevention and management with the relevant agencies and the public.
They also hope to organise a sharing session with school prefects and student councils to promote disaster prevention methods including the hazard mapping technique.
In Japan, the survival skills and training is being passed down to the younger generations, presenting them the opportunity to master those skills in order to be prepared for any disasters and have them onboard during disaster management.
Japanese students also stay overnight during study trips to fire stations to further enhance their knowledge of how the fire fighters operate during emergency and have the chance to practice fire drills.
Asked if it bear similarities to Brunei, Masdiana said, "There are NGOs set up in Tutong to help out with the floodings a few years back to help out with boats without waiting for the government."
One of the ways to get prepared for natural disasters, raising public awareness and raise caution is to inform and warn the public through text messages.
"In Australia, they used radio signals, where a light will blink if any natural disasters is nearby," they said.
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