Home Affairs Minister: Aceh's Special Autonomy Needs Extension for Disaster Recovery

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Minister of Home Affairs, Tito Karnavian, stated that special autonomy funds, or otsus, for the Aceh Provincial Government need to be extended to aid recovery following flash floods that recently impacted various areas.

Based on calculations by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the minister said in Jakarta on Monday, post-disaster recovery will take at least three years at the fastest.

This is because many public facilities must be repaired, starting from bridges and roads that need to be made permanent as they are currently temporary, as well as repairs to educational facilities.

“Perhaps one of the drivers, in our view, for the need to extend these otsus funds in Aceh, if the state’s fiscal capacity allows,” Tito said during a meeting with Commission II of the House of Representatives at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta.

In addition, he mentioned that so far, 36,000 residents’ homes have been recorded as damaged or lost.

According to him, the Aceh region also requires river normalisation. “River normalisation involves about 79 rivers that need to be dredged, and they are long. Besides being wide, they are also long, some up to 30 kilometres,” he said.

The Minister of Home Affairs stated that although Aceh’s Human Development Index (HDI) has improved, the poverty rate in Aceh remains high and unemployment is high.

“And from our perspective of the situation, especially with the disaster, we see it as quite rational. Because this disaster that happened last November,” he said.

On the other hand, Tito conveyed that last week heavy rain caused landslides at several points in Aceh. Two days ago, flooding also recurred in Pidie Jaya, accompanied by mud material.

Even so, he said, previously the government and the community had carried out various repairs to roads and public facilities in the area.

“This is the field situation, roads that are cut off again, even though they had been opened. Now everyone is working hard, from the TNI, Police, then the Ministry of Public Works, BNPB, all are working to carry out normalisation again,” he said.