Indonesian government accelerates permanent housing construction for Sumatra disaster victims
Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, who heads the Task Force for the Acceleration of Post-Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in Sumatra, said initiatives to speed up permanent home projects have become a top priority.
“The speed at which permanent housing development proceeds hinges on data provided by regional governments,” Karnavian noted in a statement received in Jakarta on Friday.
He therefore pledged to keep pressing governors and district heads in affected regions to ensure comprehensive and reliable data so that construction is not hindered by administrative hurdles.
The post-disaster rehabilitation task force proceeded to permanent housing projects after concluding most of the planned temporary homes. According to its data, a total of 401 permanent residences had been built out of the 17,969 planned across the three provinces as of February 26.
The government aims to build a total of 9,430 permanent homes for survivors in Aceh, with 104 units currently under construction. In North Sumatra, development has commenced on 524 of 4,493 planned units, up from 297 reported on February 20.
Meanwhile, the number of homes under construction in West Sumatra rose from 655 to 817 during the same period, with plans to build 4,046 units in total.
Permanent home projects are being undertaken by institutions across sectors, including the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), National Police (Polri), Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) Ministry, Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, National Alms Agency (Baznas), and Danantara Indonesia.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and the Buddha Tzu Chi Foundation are also supporting the efforts.
Earlier, PKP Minister Maruarat Sirait said the government aims to begin handing over permanent homes to disaster victims in the three provinces ahead of Eid al-Fitr next month.
“We will work toward making several units available for residents before Eid,” he noted in a Thursday statement.
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Translator: Fianda S, Tegar Nurfitra