North Sumatra Achieves Zero Tent Refugees Target Before Eid Holiday
The Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction Acceleration Task Force (Satgas PRR) for Sumatra has successfully relocated all hydrometeorological disaster refugees in North Sumatra. Flood and landslide survivors in North Sumatra have all left temporary tent shelters and moved to temporary housing units (huntara) or permanent housing units (huntap) built by government and non-government organisations.
According to the daily report from Satgas PRR as of 14 March, there was a significant reduction in the number of refugees compared to the previous day. The total number of Sumatra disaster refugees in tents had originally been 1,314 households (KK), but this has now decreased to 812 KK remaining in tents, representing a reduction of 502 KK.
Currently, all refugees still in tents are in disaster-affected areas in Aceh. Meanwhile, refugees in North Sumatra have been completely relocated to more adequate housing. This result matches the relocation achievement in West Sumatra (Sumbar), which successfully relocated all refugees to adequate housing earlier.
The success in relocating all refugees in North Sumatra and West Sumatra is largely attributed to the acceleration of temporary housing construction across the three affected provinces. The number of completed temporary shelters continues to increase daily.
In detail, of the total plan for 19,295 temporary shelter units across three affected provinces, 15,595 units have been completed to date, or approximately 80 per cent of the overall target. In West Sumatra, temporary housing construction has reached 100 per cent, North Sumatra has reached 95 per cent, and Aceh has reached approximately 77 per cent.
Whilst increasing temporary housing construction, the Satgas PRR is also progressively completing permanent housing construction. Data from the Sumatra Post-Disaster Task Force as of 14 March shows 110 permanent housing units have been completed out of 36,669 planned units. Meanwhile, 1,359 other units are currently under construction.
In addition to temporary housing development, the government’s strategy for reducing the number of refugees has also been accompanied by the provision of waiting period housing allowances (DTH) for disaster survivors who choose not to live in temporary shelters. To date, all DTH recipient accounts have received fund transfers, with a disbursement rate of 100 per cent for 13,728 beneficiaries across the three provinces.