Distribution of relief funds for dam burst victims begins

Multa Fidrus ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Tangerang   |  Thu, 11/05/2009 5:20 PM  |  Jakarta

South Tangerang municipal administration began distributing relief funds Thursday for 614 families living near the Situ Gintung lake who were displaced by a flood when the dam burst in March.

The lengthy administrative procedure to verify the data of recipients forced the dam burst victims to queue for four hours at the Pamulang administration office.  

“Data verification on the recipients is a must and they have to follow the procedure, even though it takes a long time,” Ahadi, assistant to the municipal administration for governance and welfare, said. The data verification will take five days, he added.

He said the municipal administration had allocated Rp 4.9 billion (US$515,000) worth of relief funds to be distributed to the families starting this week, with each family receiving between Rp 2.5 million and Rp 20 million depending on the number of people to feed.

The local government has raised Rp 6.7 billion from philanthropists since March, with Rp 1.5 billion coming from the neighboring Tangerang regency administration.

However, none of the victims could tell how much they would receive from the government.

“I have no idea how much I will get.  The philanthropists’ assistance will hopefully help me rebuild my house,” Kasim, one of the victims, said
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Supandi, another dam burst victim, said he and his neighbors could not get the money because the administration had not updated his data.

“It is really giving me, and others, a headache because the process is not as simple as we thought,” he said.

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

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