South Tangerang to distribute relief funds for burst dam victims

Bowing to mounting pressure, South Tangerang municipal administration has decided to allocate relief funds for 614 families near Situ Gintung Lake who were displaced by a burst dam in March.

Ahadi, assistant to the municipal secretary for governance and welfare, said Rp 4.9 billion worth of relief funds would be distributed to the families this week.

He said the administration had managed to collect a total of Rp 6.7 billion from philanthropists since March, with Rp 1.5 billion coming from the neighboring Tangerang regency administration.

“We distributed Rp 300 million of the total funds to the victims before Idul Fitri. The donation from the Tangerang administration was transferred into the South Tangerang administration’s annual budget so that it could not be distributed with the remaining Rp 4.9 billion,” he said.  

The families, who have been living in temporary shelters for seven months, had threatened to report the acting mayor M.H Shaleh to the police for negligence.

Ahadi said the administration would open accounts at Bank Jabar for every family and the money would be directly transferred into their respective accounts.

He said the number of flood victims the municipal government had to take care of had doubled from 314 to 614 families. About 300 families who have been living in several community units around the lake have been included on the aid recipient list.

The flood from the burst dam killed 100 people and destroyed hundreds of houses on March 27.