T

he Aceh provincial administration has announced that the earthquake disaster response period would end on Tuesday and would be replaced by a rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.

The emergency response period, however, can be extended pending an evaluation.

'€œWe will look at the situation in the field as well as meeting with regional administrations and the central government,'€ Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah said on Thursday.

He said since the 6.2-magnitude quake struck Bener Meriah and Central Aceh regencies on July 2, the provincial administration had done its utmost to distribute basic necessities to the victims.

The provincial administration has allocated Rp 64.96 billion (US$6.51 million) during the disaster response period. The funds were used to provide various items, such as food and clothes and infrastructure as well as providing educational and health services and covering the operational costs of the Aceh Disaster Mitigation
Agency (BPBD).

Currently 48,563 people continue to live in shelters in Cental Aceh, while Bener Meriah has a total of 2,265 displaced persons.

Zaini said the President had asked the provincial administration to draft a blueprint for the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase in both regencies.

The rehabilitation and reconstruction phase will cover houses, places of worship, schools and other public facilities.

'€œWe will help residents rebuild their homes by providing up to Rp 40 million per family depending on the degree of damage,'€ Zaini said.

He added that the provincial administration would not manage the rebuilding efforts, as its responsibility extended only to providing the necessary funds for the work.

'€œWe will leave the design and rebuilding to the residents but we hope they will use timber, which is safer,'€ he said.

As for education, the Aceh Education Agency said normal teaching schedules would resume after the Idul Fitri holiday in August, as many schools had been severely damaged or destroyed by the worst earthquake to hit the province since the Dec. 26, 2004, mega quake.

'€œThe number of damaged schools has exceeded our initial estimate. So, we do not plan to activate normal school activities until we have taken care of all the educational facilities,'€ agency head Anas M. Adan said.

Meanwhile, schoolchildren in both regencies are being offered therapy by NGOs to help combat post-traumatic stress.

'€œCurrently, children in both regencies urgently need help to overcome their trauma following the earthquake,'€ Anas said.

The agency recorded that 3,072 schools were damaged and 1,380 classrooms were destroyed.

To mitigate the lack of classrooms, the agency would provide temporary classrooms as well as using teachers from other regencies until local teachers had recovered and were ready to teach again, Anas said.