Eight months after the disaster, only 23,000 out of 216,000 houses have been rebuilt. The central government has disbursed Rp 5.1 trillion (US$364 million) to rebuild the damaged buildings.

“We decide to extend the rehabilitation and reconstruction period for 135 days from April 12 to August 25 as many damaged houses have yet to be fixed,” West Nusa Tenggara Disaster Management Agency (BPBD West Nusa Tenggara) head Mohammad Rum said on Wednesday.

He further said the decision had been stipulated in a gubernatorial decree signed by Governor Zulkieflimansyah on April 15.

As of April 16, at least 5,326 heavily damaged houses and 3,520 moderately damaged ones have been repaired — as well as 14,345 lightly damaged houses.

The regional disaster management agency recorded 75,138 heavily damaged, 33,075 moderately damaged and 108,306 lightly damaged houses in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

The government had planned to provide compensation of Rp 50 million for every heavily damaged house, Rp 25 million for every moderately damaged house and Rp 10 million for every lightly damaged house.

Agency head Rum said thousands of people had been deployed to help in reconstruction and rehabilitation — among of them were 1,897 civil society activists, 1,000 Indonesian Military personnel and 400 officers from the National Police.

Communities living in the affected Guntur Macam village in Gunungsari district of West Lombok regency expressed hope that reconstruction could proceed faster as they had been living in displaced person camps for nearly six months.

“We try to survive in the displaced persons camp while waiting for the authorities’ help,” a resident from the village, Mariati, said. Her house was badly damaged during the earthquake, so she was entitled to Rp 50 million from the government.

The 45-year-old added she had received the funds in her bank account but it was not easy to withdraw it.

Those who intended to take out the funds for reconstruction should have been included in a community group, consisting of 10 to 20 owners of damaged houses. The group were to be guided by the assigned personnel through the redevelopment process.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo who visited the province in March said accessing funds had been simplified to four procedures from 17. But he admitted that reconstruction was taking a long time because of the vast number of damaged houses.

Jokowi also suggested residents build earthquake resistant houses because the province was prone to such disasters. Low-magnitude earthquakes have continued in the area.

A 4.2-magnitude earthquake centered near Dompu regency of West Nusa Tenggara reportedly occurred on Sunday at 9:18 a.m.

“We have to be aware that this province is prone to tremors, so building earthquake resistant housing is a must,” the President said on March 22.

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