INDONESIA: Quake survivors to receive temporary shelters

Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN

Thousands lost their homes in the 30 September quake. Without any food aid, a woman is forced to cook vegetable scraps for her children in Ketaping Village, Padang Pariaman district, West Sumatra

JAKARTA, 23 October 2009 (IRIN) - The Indonesian government and aid agencies have begun building temporary shelters for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by last month's earthquake in West Sumatra Province.

The 7.6 magnitude earthquake on 30 September left 1,117 people dead, more than 1,200 seriously injured and over 135,000 homes badly damaged or destroyed.

Thousands of temporary homes will be built, some using materials recycled from damaged homes, Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), announced.

Each shelter will be 18 sqm and cost three million rupiah (US$318), Kardono said.

"Work on temporary houses has begun in some locations," Kardono told IRIN. "Such buildings can last up to six months and are more comfortable than tents," he said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its 20 October situation report that shelter remained the biggest unmet need in West Sumatra.

The BNPB director for reconstruction, Bakri Beck, said the rebuilding of permanent houses and provision of basic necessities over two months would cost an estimated 3.3 trillion rupiah ($350 million).

But the total cost of reconstruction was still being calculated by an assessment team with the help of the World Bank and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Beck said.

"We expect the reconstruction period to start in early November," Beck said.

Kardono said the government was considering setting up a special agency tasked with rebuilding West Sumatra, similar to the Aceh Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR), established after the 2004 tsunami.

Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN

A quake survivor waits for aid amid the ruins of her house in Ketaping Village, Padang Pariaman District, West Sumatra. More than 1,000 people died in the quake

"It is still being discussed. The president [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] wants a body similar to the BRR for the sake of accountability," Kardono said.

Reaching remote areas

According to OCHA, only 20 percent of the population in the provincial capital, Padang, was connected to the water distribution network, while only 50 percent of health facilities were operational.

BNPB has reported that all isolated areas had now been reached but humanitarian organizations were still receiving reports of remote communities needing assistance, OCHA said.

The head of the provincial Public Works Department, Dody Ruswandi, said 85 percent of infrastructure in the province was damaged.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it was also planning to distribute 3,500 individual tool kits - one for each family of five - and 700 community demolition and reconstruction tool kits in Padang Pariaman and Agam districts, among the worst-affected by the quake.

The IOM also said its trucks had delivered 2,709 tonnes of food and non-food relief items on behalf of 82 aid agencies.

Kardono said the government had yet to declare the emergency phase in West Sumatra over, although he had earlier said the BNPB wanted to move to the recovery phase as soon as possible, possibly three weeks after the earthquake.

"We still have time, up to two months. We want everything to go smoothly," he said.

He said foreign aid workers would be notified in advance before the government declared the emergency phase over.

Once the recovery phase begins, all NGOs will need to be registered with the government to continue operating.

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