Padang, April 26 -- Minister of Human Development and Cultural Affairs, Muhadjir Effendy, urged the West Sumatra government to place natural disaster mitigation as a top priority program.

"The government and people of West Sumatra must stipulate disaster mitigation as a program of super priority," he said during the commemoration of 2024 National Disaster Preparedness Day in Padang, West Sumatra, on Friday.

Effendy noted that 10.18 percent of the total of 5,400 natural disasters that hit Indonesia last year were recorded in West Sumatra, placing it in the second position in terms of provinces with the most number of disasters after West Java.

He stated that the high frequency of disasters in West Sumatra should have prompted its govern...