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Just five in 1,000 Indonesians donate blood each year, a situation the Indonesian Red Cross warned on Tuesday was compromising the country’s blood supply.

Jusuf Kalla, the former vice president and the chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), said inadequate blood supplies threatened the country’s ability to respond to emergencies.

“The demand for blood shoots up when a region is hit by an outbreak of a disease such as dengue fever,” Kalla said. “We can supply only about 1.7 million units of blood today. We need at least 4 million units.”

Citing data from a 2004 World Health Organization survey, the PMI Web site said Indonesia ranked the lowest among four other regional economies in terms of regular blood donations.

According to the WHO survey, 14 out of every 1,000 Malaysians, 24 in 1,000 Singaporeans and 68 in 1,000 Japanese donate blood each year.

“Indonesia’s blood stock is grossly inadequate, particularly for blood types such as AB, which is considered rare here,” Kalla said. “We have a population of 230 million people. Surely many of them can be encouraged to give blood to balance the supply and demand for blood.”

He added that Jakarta, a city of 13 million people during the day, had half a million regular donors.

Kalla said the Red Cross needed to increase its blood stocks to ensure it was able to respond to a natural disaster or a major disease outbreak.

He said he was particularly concerned about dengue fever, and asked that Indonesians drain open water tanks and dispose of unused water containers to prevent the mosquitoes that spread the disease from breeding.

Jakarta annually has the highest number of dengue fever cases of any of the country’s urban centers, he said, but it has shown progress against the disease in the past few years.

Blood donor Yohanes Rysan, 23, a student at Jakarta State University, on Tuesday said he was motivated to donate blood because he wanted to be of help to those in need.

“I still remember years ago seeing a woman crying in a hospital because her mother, who was really sick, needed blood immediately but the hospital did not have any more stocks,” he said.

“I realized then what blood meant for the sick. We also do not know when we will need help from others.”

He said that he had been donating blood since high school.

Speaking at a blood drive in Jakarta organized by radio network KBR68H and the PMI, Rysan said it was the 10th time he had donated blood.

Teguh Nugroho, 35, said he had donated blood at least six times because he knew what it meant to some people. “We save lives,” Teguh said.