Elisia Yeo, Bantul – The United Nations warned that tens of thousands of Indonesia quake survivors still desperately needed shelter as new aftershocks frightened jittery residents.
Scientists said another major quake was unlikely to happen soon but the new jolts frayed nerves across the disaster zone, where the UN said building materials were urgently needed to provide shelter.
Officials also warned that while food and medicines were reaching the needy, a lack of toilets was raising fears of disease as waste was exposed openly in many areas.
"It's not a very exciting subject but it's absolutely vital," said Charlie Higgins, the UN's area relief coordinator in the quake zone. "There's no 'Latrines Sans Frontieres.'"
As the homeless braced for a ninth night out in the open, struggling in makeshift shelters, he said the survivors needed tools and supplies to build better living quarters as soon as possible.
"There is obviously a big shortfall in the amount of materials... that have been given out and that are in the pipeline," he told AFP after an aid coordination meeting in Yogyakarta, the main city in the quake zone.
"It's not so much tents, although tents are useful in some circumstances, as it is shelter materials such as tarpaulins, bamboo, rope, tools, et cetera, that enable people to put together their own shelter solutions."
The Indonesian government said it would provide more than 160 million dollars to rebuild homes in the zone, as more international aid poured in to cope with the tens of thousands of injured and homeless.
The United Nations has said 100 million dollars is needed over the next six months to cope with the disaster, and said Saturday it was in a "race against time" to help survivors struggling to get food, shelter and health care.
At least 6,234 people were killed, some 46,000 others injured and more than 139,000 homes in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces either damaged or completely destroyed in the quake.
Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah said authorities would offer community grants in order to encourage collective rebuilding in devastated villages.
Although new casualties have continued to stream into hospitals, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the backlog of patients was being cleared. Foreign medical teams from China, Singapore, the United States and elsewhere have set up field hospitals to ease the burden on local facilities.
US medics dispatched a mobile unit from the hospital to reach those injured living in remote areas, while a 100-strong Cuban medical team was due to arrive in the area later Sunday.
The Indonesian social affairs ministry, which has sent assessment teams to determine the exact number of dead and injured, did not release any new figures on Sunday.
The government said it would send auditors to monitor aid disbursement in the quake zone, after accusations that billions of dollars in aid funds were misused in Aceh province following the 2004 tsunami.
And to the north of the quake zone, the Mount Merapi volcano continued to belch heat clouds and send trails of lava down its slopes, heightening fears of an eruption. Indonesia maintained a red alert at the peak.
Government vulcanologist Surono tried to allay local fears of another quake in the short term, saying there was "not enough energy" to trigger a major tremor, but did say the quake had increased the activity at Merapi.
Residents nonetheless said they were scared of the aftershocks and would sleep outside until they stopped.
In the daytime, it's okay but at night, when the tremors come, I'm afraid. I have nightmares," said Kasmiyoto, a 50-year-old villager in hard-hit Bantul district. "Sometimes, when my wife is praying, she says she feels like her body is still shaking."