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All hands on deck to reconstruct Lombok: Jokowi
Jokowi has disbursed Rp 234 billion to survivors to rebuild their homes.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (center), flanked by West Nusa Tenggara Governor Zainul Majdi (third right), watch the closing ceremony of the Asian Games with survivors in Gunungsari district, West Lombok, on Sunday night. (Antara/Ahmad Subaidi)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has kick-started the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, after a recent series of earthquakes hit the region in July and August.
The first phase of reconstruction would focus on building public facilities such as markets, schools and health facilities, the President said during a ceremony in West Lombok regency on Monday morning.
“Yesterday, I saw some of them were being constructed under the command of the Public Works and Housing Ministry,” Jokowi said in a statement on Monday.
He instructed volunteers to assist residents to rebuild their houses, which will be earthquake-proof, under the supervision of the ministry, engineers and technical school students.
Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said during the ceremony that the ministry had verified 291 of the 972 damaged public buildings and 32,800 of the 125,000 damaged houses. The government targets the reconstruction to finish in six months.
“We will open building material depots in districts to ease the distribution of affordable materials,” the minister added.
On Aug. 23, the President signed a presidential instruction on disaster mitigation on the island to accelerate the reconstruction efforts. The instruction mandated the ministry to lead the rehabilitation.
“I will keep my eye on this [effort], so the province can return to normal once again,” Jokowi said.
On Sunday, the President symbolically handed over between Rp 10 million (US$673) and Rp 50 million in assistance to each of the 5,293 households to rebuild or repair their homes, totaling around Rp 234 billion. (evi)
