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).