Seven-Day Target: Tito Requests Acceleration of Complete Data Collection for Permanent Housing in Sumatra

Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri), Muhammad Tito Karnavian, as Chair of the Task Force (Kasatgas) for Accelerating Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (PRR) Post-Disaster in Sumatra, has set a target for data collection on permanent housing (huntap), including classification, for local governments (Pemda) in the affected areas.

Tito emphasised that the speed and accuracy of data are key to accelerating the construction of huntap for affected communities. Local governments have been given a one-week deadline to complete the accurate data collection and classification of huntap. He stressed that huntap will only be built for houses that are severely damaged or lost.

This was stated after the Coordination Meeting on Huntap Data Collection at the Secretariat of the PRR Task Force Post, Central Office of the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri), Jakarta, on Wednesday (15/4). It should be noted that there are three classifications of huntap: huntap insitu (at the original location), huntap ex situ (relocated to a chosen/self-funded location), and huntap ex situ centralised/communal (in the form of a complex).

“I gave a deadline until next Wednesday. Meanwhile, we are doing this in parallel, BPS will go down, BNPB will also go down, and from this PRR Task Force, 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,” said Tito on Wednesday (15/4).

In its implementation, the data collection results will serve as the basis for determining the appropriate huntap construction scheme for affected communities. The PRR Task Force also requests that regional heads directly accelerate the data collection process by forming small teams so that data collection can be carried out 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.

“Well, from the 39,000, it will then 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,” added Tito.

For this purpose, the government has designated the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PKP) and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) as the main spearheads for huntap construction. In addition, there is also support for huntap construction from various parties, including the Buddha Tzu Chi Foundation, Polri, and the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs.

“What we will build first are the areas that already have ready data. So, please, fellow regional heads, don’t let the communities complain later because of delays in carrying out the data collection,” Tito concluded.