Govt cooperates with NGOs to help flood victims

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has intensified cooperation with volunteers from a number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to deal with diseases which originated from the flooding that has paralyzed Jakarta and other major cities in recent weeks.

A second meeting between government officials, the head of the Jakarta Health Agency, Chalik Masulili, volunteers, NGO activists, and the coordinator for Government Watch (Gowa), Farid R. Faqih, was held on Saturday to discuss plans on how to deal with health problems after the floods.

Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi, who also attended the meeting, admitted that cooperation with the NGOs was badly needed because his office was unable to handle the health problems by itself.

"It's impossible for the government alone to handle the health cases that originated from the floods. We need cooperation with the NGOs," Sujudi said.

The number of people, mostly flood victims, infected by disease in Jakarta alone has been estimated at about 1,600.

Most of them are suffering from respiratory infection, diarrhea, and dengue fever.

Under the cooperation, the volunteers would help distribute medicine, run health clinics, and register the patients, especially the poor, for free treatment.

Sujudi said that his ministry had set up a team in charge of searching for people infected by disease. "The team is also in charge of monitoring the conditions of the patients everyday," he said.

Commenting on the supply of medicine for the program, Sujudi said that the government had allocated funds from the fuel subsidy the government recently repealed.

"The fund, which will be disbursed next month, will be used to provide free medical services in 14 hospitals in Jakarta," he said, adding that the 14 hospitals were mostly run by the state, the military, and state enterprises.

The minister disclosed that the government would also allocate another fund worth Rp 128 billion (US$12.67 million) to deal with the effects of the disaster nationwide.

The money, he said, would be spent to purchase medicine, and to reimburse privately-run hospitals.

Farid R. Faqih hailed the program in his capacity as the coordinator of the volunteers, saying that his team was ready to help provide health services.

"The government has the medicine, but has no personnel, so we can help the ministry distribute the medicine and provide health services," Farid told The Jakarta Post.