Erwida Maulia and Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – Around 90,000 families are still homeless in Padang, West Sumatra, two weeks after the 7.9-magnitude quake hit the province as the UN pledges to disburse US$38 million to help victims, the government says.
Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BKPM) Syamsul Maarif said in a press conference that while the quake victims' basic needs, such as drinking water, energy, electricity and telecommunications had been met, providing them with shelters was still a problem.
"There are still 90,000 families without a shelter. We will meet about two-thirds of the need for shelter by the end of this week," Syamsul said, after attending a Cabinet meeting on the aftermath of the earthquake with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"As for the remaining [victims], the governor has started to distribute tools to the communities so they can use them to build their own shelters until their houses are repaired.
"I've seen how people in outlying areas build shelters from the remains of their houses," he added.
Syamsul said his agency had actually prepared huge makeshift tents to be used as temporary shelters for large groups of quake victims. But, he added, the victims had refused to use them, demanding individual family shelters instead.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Crisis and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, who visited West Sumatra on Wednesday, also agreed that the quake victims needed shelters as thousands of houses had been badly damaged.
"We will be helping the government provide a large number of tents," the UN official told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. "The victims do not want to go to camps and want to stay where they are. That means they need some kind of temporary shelter."
The UN has asked the international community for $38 million for immediate relief efforts in the devastated province. "I have already authorized $7 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund," Holmes said.
He said the initial response from the Indonesian government and the international community to the disaster had been "good and effective".
For the rice aid program, West Sumatra Governor Gamawan Fauzi said a total of 6,000 tons of rice had been distributed to quake victims, 5,000 tons would soon be handed out, and 14,000 tons were still in stock – enough for the next five months.
As for the cash aid program, over Rp 45 billion ($4.5 million) has been disbursed in total, he said.
Syamsul said emergency measures had been taken over the last two weeks, and that the government was still considering whether they would last for two months or be cut to a month.
Gamawan said that as of Thursday, the death toll from the West Sumatra quake had reached 1,117 people, 907 of whom had been identified.
Yudhoyono said that emergency measures should be completed soon so that rehabilitation and reconstruction activities could start immediately.
He said that West Sumatra and neighboring Jambi, which was also hit by a smaller-magnitude earthquake, should be better prepared to face similar disasters in the future.
"We hope that West Sumatra and Jambi will not just recover, but also be better equipped to face similar disasters, by constructing quake-proof buildings, mentally preparing their citizens, and implementing early responses to disasters," the President said.