Flood victims ask for promised aid

Flood victims ask for promised aid

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Deriati Rangkuti, a victim of the Bahorok flash flood, has been
living for two years in a refugee shelter near the Bahorok area.
Day by day, she waits for the government to keep their promises
to rehabilitate Bahorok area and to build her a house, but the
promises have turned out to be empty.

With no certainty that the government will build the houses
they as earlier promised, the 60-year-old woman has begun to get
concerned. Her future is uncertain. She desperately needs a house
as sanitation in the displaced persons shelter, which is
inhabited by some 80 families, has become increasingly bad. Aid
supplies from the government and donors have also been dwindling,
adding to Deriati's misery.

The tough life has forced many families to leave. Initially,
the shelter was inhabited by 400 families, but now there are only
80 families left, including Deriati's family.

"Some families went to live with their relatives, the others,
I don't know," said Deriati as she was taking part in a protest
in front of the North Sumatra council building on Tuesday. At the
protest, some 100 victims of the Bahorok flash flood, including
Deriati, demanded that the government rehabilitate the flood-
affected area and build houses for the victims of the flood.

If the government did not build houses very soon, there is
concern that people living in the shelter will start falling sick
as sanitation facilities are damaged because of overuse and poor
maintenance.

According to Saul Panggabean, a representative of the Bahorok
victims, said that he had discovered corrupt practices in the
rebuilding of Bahorok victim's houses.

There should have been 354 houses, according to a government
blueprint for the reconstruction of Bahorok area, but to date
only 200 houses have been built.

Saul also questioned the amount of funds used to build each
house. He said that one house should cost Rp 18 million
(US$1,900), but according to findings in the field, construction
costs where only for the state were only Rp 8 million.

"We conclude that there has been corruption taking place.
Government officials should have helped us, but instead they have
robbed us," said Saul.

According to a government report, the central government has
poured some Rp 25 billion in funds, and other Rp 50 billion
had been spent by the Langkat regental government to rebuild
Bahorok area and Lawang Hill that had been destroyed by the flash
flood, but there is no clear outcome of the projects.

"We have demanded that concerned parties conduct an audit in
order to make sure that the state money was used properly," said
Saul.

Responding to the claims, secretary of Langkat regental
government Masri Zein said that technical reasons were behind the
sluggish reconstruction of the Bahorok and Bukit Lawang area.

Masri admitted that the central government had handed over
funds amounting to Rp 25 billion, but when he was asked whether a
portion of the funds had been embezzled by government officials,
he gave an assurance that no corruption had occurred in the
project.

The Bahorok flash flood hit the area some two years ago,
killing over 200 people. The area, which once attracted
foreigners due to the presence of orang utan in the area, was
mostly destroyed.