The Disaster Has Not Ended in Balaroa

A year after residents also faced soil liquefaction caused by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 on 28 September 28, 2018, many survivors in Balaroa village, Palu city, are still living in living in evacuation camps.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

A survivor of the soil liquefaction and earthquake disaster of 28 Sept. 2018 reclines on a bench under a makeshift roof at a displaced persons camp in Balaroa village, West Palu, Central Sulawesi, Monday (23/9/2019). More than 300 households – about 1,200 people – still live at the camp a year after the disaster.

A year after residents also faced soil liquefaction caused by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 on 28 September 28, 2018, many survivors in Balaroa village, West Palu, Palu city, Central Sulawesi, are still living in evacuation camps.

Nuranisa, 25,  wiped the sweat from the forehead and cheeks of her 6-month-old son Rafizki . On Monday afternoon, the boy was seated in a baby seat at the tent door. The chirping of a bird in a cage in front of the tent made him happy.

"Every afternoon, I play with him at the tent door as it is so hot inside," said Nuranisa, a survivor of the soil liquefaction in the Balaroa evacuation camp.  When the wind blew, around the tent door was cool. However, the wind did not always come. The sun was hot.

Nuranisa\'s tent is 3 meters high in the middle and 1 meter at the edge, with a width of 3 meters and length of 5 meters.

Not long after that, the sweat poured all over the body and face of the baby. The air temperature on the smartphone showed 33 degrees Celsius.

Nuranisa has a fan, but it cannot cool the air in a tent made of thick fabric. Most of the white tents in the camp read the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN body that handles displaced people. Some others carry names of donor countries.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Nuranisa and her son gaze out of their tent on Monday (23/9/2019) at a displaced persons camp in Balaroa village, West Palu, Central Sulawesi. More than 300 households – about 1,200 people – still live at the camp a year after an earthquake caused soil liquefaction to swallow up entire neighborhoods and settlements in Palu and Donggala.

Adequate

The Balaroa evacuation camp is located on a hillside, about half a kilometer west of the nearest point of the faction a year ago. From there, the stretch of Palu city, including Palu Bay, is clearly visible.

According to data from the shelter officials, as of last July, as many 337 families consisting of 1,298 people were still living in the tents.

The tents complex resembled settlements built in blocks. There is a semi-permanent mosque in the middle of the complex. Many tents become food stalls that sell residents\' needs.

At some points, there are public bathrooms. The water flows through pipes from the mountains. The clean water is provided with assistance from various institutions for additional use. Electricity comes from poles and cables covering the entire complex.

Nuranisa and her husband, Aminuddin, who work as construction workers, have been living in emergency tents since November, 2018, two months after the earthquake. Both of them have previously fled to South Sulawesi.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

New roofs and other signs of construction are visible on Tuesday (9/24/2019) in the coastal village of Mamboro in North Palu district, Palu, Central Sulawesi. Many villagers have returned to their former dwellings on the coast of Palu Bay, even though the government has designated it as a Red Zone and banned housing developments in the area. The coastal area was destroyed by a tsunami that was triggered by a major earthquake a year ago.

Rafizki who weighs 7 kilograms was born six months ago. Nuranisa was lucky, her baby never got sick. "I take care of his needs. For drinking, I buy bottled water," she said.

Sukron, 32, another survivor, along with his wife Laila, 33,  take care of his mother-in-law, Nazrah, 72, who has vision problems. "We never expected to live in tents for up to a year. The government\'s promise is only three months," he said.

The government previously promised to build temporary shelters (huntara) for survivors of the earthquake, tsunami and soil liquefaction. The government planned to build 669 temporary shelters units consisting of 8,028 cubicles.

The shelters are for the survivors whose houses were severely damaged due to disaster while waiting for the construction of permanent shelters expected to be completed in two years.

At present, all the temporary shelters have been built, except for the survivors in Balaroa.  The Balaroa shelter management secretary Ivantri Datupalinge said that the temporary shelters were not built because there was rejection from the survivors in early 2019.

KOMPAS/VIDELIS JEMALI

Signs marking the site of the Palu-Koro Fault and the 28 Sept. 2018 earthquake stand opposite a mosque on Jl. Cemara that is being repaired on Wednesday (11/9/2019) in Balaroa village of West Palu district, Palu city, Central Sulawesi. The areas along the fault were declared Red Zones following the earthquake, which damaged and destroyed hundreds of structures.

At that time, the survivors who were members of the Balaroa soil liquefaction victim forum demanded that they were given cash instead of the shelters. However, the government rejected their demands.

Ivantr said the government had instead encouraged the Balaroa survivors to occupy empty shelters elsewhere. "The problem is complex. There is a consideration of kinship. The school is nearby," he said. Many Balaroa survivors become traders at the Manonda Inpres market, not far from the camp.

The head of the Palu city regional disaster management agency, Presly Tampubolon, said that his party was encouraging the Balaroa survivors to move into empty shelters in Duyu and Pengawu subdistricts, about 2 kilometers from the camp. However, the survivors rejected it.

At present, the camp administrators coordinate with a social institution for the construction of shelters, but it is not known yet when it will be built.

Meanwhile, 200 residential units are still being built for Balaroa survivors. "But I don\'t know when the construction will be completed," Ivantri said.