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One week later: Survivors lack resources
Precious water: Children carry jerry cans full of water past the US Air Force’s makeshift medical facilities erected opposite Dr M
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span class="inline inline-center">Precious water: Children carry jerry cans full of water past the US Air Force’s makeshift medical facilities erected opposite Dr M. Djamil Hospital, which was badly damaged in last week’s 7.6 magnitude quake, in Padang, West Sumatra, on Wednesday. Clean water is scarce as the natural disaster destroyed much of the infrastructure in affected areas. JP/J. Adiguna
The normally quiet village where Parman grew up suddenly transformed into a hectic tourist site when crowds of people came to assess damage caused by last week's earthquake in his neighborhood. But he said he had never felt more lonely.
He lost his wife, Nurhayati, and their two daughters, Desi and Puji, when the 7.6-magnitude quake shook most parts of West Sumatra, triggering landslides that buried three hamlets in Patemuan district, Padang Pariaman regency.
“I haven’t seen my family since that day,” the 55-year-old farmer told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, a week after the Sept. 30 tremor occurred.
“I would be so happy if I could see my family again, but I don't think they survived,” he said while staring across a rice paddy where rescuers were working to recover hundreds of buried people.
Parman was inspecting his property when the Post met him. “The landslide ruined our irrigation system,” he said, pointing to his rice paddy, which he claimed was desperate for water.
Parman added he had to wait for his damaged irrigation system to be repaired before he could work again.
But time was precious, he said, as his rice paddy could not survive without water for more than a month.
Rivai Marlaut, head of the Pulau Air hamlet that lost 44 residents in the landslide, claimed 500 hectares of rice paddies were at risk, and urged the government to prioritize repairing irrigation systems.
“We are recovering bodies...but now we have to focus on helping survivors who have been left with nothing,” he said.
“We have received aid such as food, which will help us for a week, but after that we need to work again and rebuild our lives.”
He also said people needed more shelter and expressed hope Pulau Air residents would live a normal life again.
Most people from rural regen-cies in West Sumatra work as rice farmers.
Agriculture is an important industry in the province and accounts for about 42 percent of its workforce, according to West Sumatra Governor Gamawan Fauzi.
He said in Antara in August the number of people who worked in agriculture had increased from 821,996 people in 2006 to 924,314 in 2008.
Quake survivors in isolated areas across Padang Pariaman could soon starve due to lack of aid. Some survivors have resorted to begging for donations by roadsides.
The disaster's impact, heavy rain and damaged infrastructure have been blamed as factors that have attributed to the slow delivery of emergency aid to affected areas.
However, aid workers reportedly gained greater access into the landslide-swept villages on Wednesday, the first time since the quake occurred.
Febriyanti, a resident from Padang, believed its desperate state had been exaggerated.
He said West Sumatra had always been a lumbung padi, or “rice barn”, meaning the province was a region that had been blessed with an abundance of food resources.
Parman said he would return to his rice paddy tomorrow morning as he has done since he was a child.
The latest official death toll from the quake was 739, including 335 in Padang Pariaman, 309 in Padang, 43 in Agam and 37 in Pariaman city.
There are 296 people missing.
Syofiardi Bachyul Jb contributed to this story from Padang.
