Quake victims facing rice shortages

Quake victims facing rice shortages

Yemris Fointuna and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Alor/Jakarta

Thousands of quake victims on the East Nusa Tenggara island of
Alor are facing a shortage of staple food as the rice supply in
the local administration's warehouse is starting to run out.

Deputy Alor regent Abraham Maulaka said on Monday only 2.5
tons of rice was in storage at the provincial logistics depot,
which he said would be enough to feed the quake victims for two
days.

"We need around 650 tons more rice for the victims and some Rp
2.5 billion (US$277,000) to buy additional food for the coming 15
to 20 days," Abraham told The Jakarta Post.

He said the government had disbursed some 55 tons of rice in
the past two weeks for the victims.

The regency administration had written to the East Nusa
Tenggara governor asking for additional aid.

Rice is the staple food for the country's 215 million people.

An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale shook the
island on Nov. 12, causing damage to around 17,000 buildings and
leaving 50,000 people homeless.

The death toll in the disaster reached 33 on Monday after two
more victims injured in the quake died.

Many of the survivors have been living in tents, leaving them
vulnerable to various diseases, particularly with the arrival of
wet season.

An aftershock that took place during heavy rain on Sunday
caused hundreds of residents to panic as their makeshift tents
could not withstand the downpour.

"We cannot build better shelters because the meteorology and
geophysics agency says it is better not to build good ones as
more aftershocks are still to come," an official said.

In Jakarta, the government has decided to provide Rp 70
billion in a relief fund for the victims of the earthquake.

Families of the deceased will receive Rp 3 million in
compensation and those whose houses were damaged or leveled in
the quake will received between Rp 5 million and Rp 10 million
each, Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said
after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Monday.

"The disbursement of the funds will be directly supervised by
the National Natural Disaster Mitigation Coordinating Agency,
while for the compensation for the fatalities will be extended
after we are sure of the total number of the deceased," Alwi
said.

Present in the meeting were Minister of Social Services
Bachtiar Chamsyah, Minister of Health Siti Fadila Supari and
Minister of Public Works Djoko Kirmanto.

Alwi said so far the government had spent some Rp 300 million
on medical aid, food, and other emergency needs such as shelters
and clean water for the quake victims.

He added the priority of the rehabilitation program would be
the reconstruction of 5,800 houses.

International community donations continued to pour into Alor,
the latest being from the United Nations office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) which has
allocated Rp 234 million.

The donation will be in the forms of cooking utensils,
toiletries and bedding to support the victims during their stay
in the shelters.

UN-OCHA chief in Indonesia Michael Elmquist said the aid would
be distributed by international non-governmental organization
Catholic Relief Service (CRS).