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Concern rises as rainy season looms in Lombok

Fears have been expressed that many earthquake victims on Lombok Island in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) living in tents or other temporary shelters far from their damaged houses will not have a proper place to live by the time the rainy season starts next month

Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, September 12, 2018

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Concern rises as rainy season looms in Lombok

F

ears have been expressed that many earthquake victims on Lombok Island in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) living in tents or other temporary shelters far from their damaged houses will not have a proper place to live by the time the rainy season starts next month.

Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono has promised to finish the reconstruction of the damaged houses in the next six months.

NTB Regional Council speaker Baiq Isvie Rupaeda, however, called on the government to provide an immediate solution for all victims and questioned the government’s sluggishness in conducting a multi-layered aid-eligibility assessment.

“The central government might need to consider providing [faster] temporary housing, as the regional administration might not be able to provide it because of a limited budget — most of which has been allocated for repairing public buildings,” Baiq said in a meeting with the ministry and the House of Representatives on Monday.

Authorities have verified that some 33,000 houses were heavily damaged in the quakes in July and August, out of a total of 107,000 reports of damaged houses.

Yet, they have so far managed to assess fewer than three-quarters of the verified houses, about 24,000 houses, as being eligible for receiving financial aid.

Furthermore the fund distribution has moved at a snail’s pace, with the government so far channeling financial aid for the reconstruction of the 5,293 verified houses, far fewer than the total number of damaged houses.

“The House asked [the government] to immediately transfer the financial aid to residents, so it can be used for reconstruction and rehabilitation,” House deputy speaker Fahri Hamzah said.

Basuki, however, said the government was currently working on solving the financial aid distribution problem, while his office was also “ensuring the [smooth] flow of building materials to the island”.

Basuki said the houses would be rebuilt by the residents themselves, with the help of government engineers, using the Healthy Modest Instantaneous House (Risha) modular concept, which was easy to build and resistant to earthquakes, unlike conventional houses.

“Each Risha house can be finished in two weeks, tops, costing only around Rp 16 million [US$1,076] to Rp 20 million,” he said.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Willem Rampangilei said the agency would be ready to distribute and erect large tents for families closer to the location of their damaged houses as a temporary solution.

“Building such housing [as demanded by Baiq] would require [people] to move to a new location. On the other hand, this kind of tent will allow them to immediately start the reconstruction of their homes [in the original location] given the tent’s close proximity to the location,” Willem said, adding that the plan was drawn up based on input from local residents.

A public initiative by Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University (UGM), in collaboration with the Transportation Ministry, on the other hand, has offered a quicker and cheaper post-disaster transitional housing design, which will allow people to renovate and turn their houses into more permanent structures in the future.

The project would be built in a cluster of 50 houses around Pemenang, using a combination of earthquake-resistant steel frames and light aluminum roofs with either woven bamboo or reused timber. It is estimated that it would take two days to build each house at a cost of Rp 10 million.

Another concern that has arisen is malaria with the West Lombok Health Agency recording at least 103 malaria cases in four districts across the regency, including in Gunungsari where the first four cases were detected at an earthquake shelter.

Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek has said her office has started to distribute mosquito nets and antimalarial medicine.

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