Home Affairs Minister Urges Local Governments to Complete Sumatra Disaster Permanent Housing Data

Home Affairs Minister Muhammad Tito Karnavian has urged local governments to accelerate the data collection for permanent housing (huntap) for victims of the Sumatra disaster. As Chair of the Task Force for Accelerating Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (Satgas PRR) Post-Sumatra Disaster, he stated that this acceleration includes classification. There are three classifications of permanent housing: insitu huntap (at the original location), eksitu huntap (relocated to a chosen/self-funded site), and centralised/ communal eksitu huntap (in complex form). Tito emphasised that the speed and accuracy of the data are key to accelerating huntap construction for affected communities. He requested local governments to complete the accurate classification data within a week. He also stressed that huntap will only be built for houses that are severely damaged or lost. “I gave a deadline until next Wednesday. Meanwhile, we are doing it in parallel; BPS will go down, BNPB will also go down, and from this Satgas (PRR), there is also a team going down to these three provinces. And I also ask for support from the governors to encourage the regents and mayors to carry out the data collection,” Tito said in his official statement on 15 April 2026. The results of this data collection will serve as the basis for determining the appropriate huntap construction scheme for affected communities. Tito also asked regional heads to directly oversee the acceleration of the data collection process by forming small teams to ensure it is done quickly. Based on preliminary data, the number of proposed huntap constructions in the three affected provinces reaches 39,021 units, with details of 28,876 units in Aceh, 7,321 units in North Sumatra, and 2,824 units in West Sumatra. However, this data will still be verified by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) before construction execution. “From the 39,000, it will also be verified by BPS. Whether it’s true, severely damaged/lost, eligible or not, and so on. Only then will BNPB and the Minister of PKP carry out the execution,” he said. In addition, the government has designated the Ministry of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) as the main spearheads for huntap construction. Huntap construction also receives support from various parties, including the Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation, Polri, and the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs. “What we build first are the areas that already have ready data. So, please, fellow regional heads, don’t let the public complain about delays in data collection,” Tito said.