Bali will become Indonesia's main pilot region for the rollout of a single emergency number.
By dialling 112 from a mobile or landline phone, you will be able to call for help in any emergency: a fire, a threat to life or health, a natural disaster, a breach of public order and other incidents.
Calls to 112 will be free of charge.
The government also plans to develop a mobile app for contacting the emergency services in the future. The authorities want to spare people the time spent looking for the right number. A call to 112 will go into a single system, from which it can be routed to the appropriate agency.
Bali was chosen as the main pilot region because of its status as an international tourist destination. According to the authorities, the single number should be convenient not only for local residents but also for foreigners, who may find it hard to work out which emergency number to use. The number 112 is already in use around the world.
Indonesia's Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technology and the local authorities of every regency and city in Bali have already signed a cooperation agreement and a joint commitment to develop the "Indonesia Siaga 112" system.
For now, however, 112 cannot be used in full in Bali. The authorities have yet to announce an exact launch date. Before that, operators need to be trained, control centres and dispatch services created or expanded, and rules for their work drawn up. The call centre is to operate around the clock.
The system's readiness will be assessed every month over a period of two years. During that time the authorities want to fine-tune it in Bali and then use the experience gained to introduce the single emergency number in other regions of Indonesia.
Sources: Bali Post, Suara Merdeka.
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