Govt Starts Lombok Post-Quake Reconstruction
Vice President Jusuf Kalla on his visits at the evacuation center in Kekait Village, Gunung Sari District, West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, on Tuesday (21/8). (Photo by: BNPB)
Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced that the Government has begun rehabilitating houses affected by the quake that hit the resort island of Lombok which occurred since 29 July 2018.
The announcement was delivered by the Vice President while visiting displaced residents at the evacuation center in Kekait Village, Gunung Sari District, West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, Tuesday (21/8).
During the meeting, Kalla invited the affected residents to rebuild their damaged houses together and he emphasized that the reconstruction was entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary residents.
As previously reported, each household would receive Rp10 million to Rp50 million to rebuild or repair their houses, depending on the extent of the damages and Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing will provide guidance regarding the construction.
Furthermore, the Vice President also noted that assistance funds should not be used to buy other needs such as cigarettes, motorbikes or television, but be used properly to buy building materials, such as cement, iron sheeting, wood or nails. He also expected that all affected residents would work together, either male or female, to speed up the construction.
According to Kalla, there was no earthquake that killed people, it the buildings that do. Through earthquake resistant houses, the Vice President expressed hopes that there will be no more victims because of the collapsed building.
We want to build good houses, the quake-resistant ones, Kalla said as quoted by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) press release, Tuesday (21/8).
Kalla added that the houses must resist at least 9-magnitude quake while targeting one house to be completed in one month and 6 months for the construction of the entire damaged houses.
In the meantime, Minister of Public Works and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono said that his ministry has educated and trained the displaced residents for 1-2 days in how to build earthquake-resistant houses.
Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing involves students from universities and the Indonesian National Defense Force (TNI) to oversee the construction of houses. At the same time the Ministry is also reconstructing infrastructures such as roads, markets and schools, Basuki said, adding that housing construction starts today (21/8).
The construction of 43 from more than 500 schools that were damaged has begun, Basuki added, while Ministry of Education has set up emergency tents for teaching and learning activities.
Meanwhile, responding to the post-earthquake relief efforts, Kalla said that the Government treated it the same as national disasters and has mobilized resources from ministries/government institutions such as Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Education and Culture and the BNPB. Unlike Aceh disaster, the Vice President continued, the Government was not able to deal it alone so that it needed international support.
In the meantime, Head of the BNPB Willem Rampangilei said that he had distributed housing assistance funds to 5,000 affected houses households. So far, the Lombok Emergency Disaster Relief Command Post recorded 73,843 houses damaged, Rampangilei said.
The Vice President concluded the visit with a closed meeting attended by Minister of Public Works and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono, Minister of Social Affairs Idrus Marham, Minister of Education and Culture Muhadjir Effendy, Head of the BNPB Willem Rampangilei, Governor of West Nusa Tenggara M. Zainul Majdi, Governor of East Java Soekarwo, the Lombok Emergency Disaster Relief Command Post Commander Colonel Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, and representatives of West Nusa Tenggara apparatus organizations. (BNPB/ES/EN) (GWH/EP/Naster)
