Recovery Programs Progressing Slowly

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Rows of white tents, some reinforced with sheets of blue tarp, stand on Monday (23/9/2019) at a displaced persons camp in Balaroa village, West Palu, Central Sulawesi. The earthquake that struck on 28 Sept. 2018 caused a tsunami and soil liquefaction that displaced 172,999 people, damaged 110,214 houses and incurred an estimated Rp 24.96 trillion in losses.

PALU, KOMPAS — Several post-disaster recovery programs in Central Sulawesi are progressing slowly. The two-year completion target of reconstruction and rehabilitation will be missed if program management is not evaluated and accelerated.Precisely one year ago, on Friday, 28 September 2018, an earthquake hit and triggered tsunami and liquefaction in Palu, Sigi, Donggala and Parigi Moutong in Central Sulawesi. The latest data shows that 3,124 people died, 705 went missing, 1,016 unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave and 110,214 homes were destroyed.

One year after the disaster, several priority post-disaster programs are progressing slowly. The fulfillment of survivors’ rights, including of financial aid distribution, repair of damaged homes and life insurance cash assistance have been delayed for nine months since early 2019. The first phase of repair on Gumbasa’s seven-kilometer irrigation culvert for 1,700 hectares of rice field in Sigi missed its completion target of July 2019. Permanent homes’ construction by Public Works and Housing Ministry for survivors relocated from danger zones has yet to begin.

In adherence to President Joko Widodo’s order, rehabilitation and recovery in Central Sulawesi should be finished by 2020. All of the projects should be completed next year. However, looking at the current progress, this may not be doable.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Students of SDN 21 Palu state elementary school in Tatanga, Palu, Central Sulawesi, sit the midterm exam in an emergency classroom on Wednesday (25/9/2019). Their school, which was destroyed in the earthquake a year ago, has yet to be rebuilt.

Secretary-general Khadafi Badjerey of Pasigala Center, a consortium of civil society organizations tackling Central Sulawesi’s post disaster management, said he was never convinced that the rehabilitation and reconstruction would be smooth. This was because the funding was mostly from foreign loans, which adhere to the normative mechanism in several ministries through the state budget. The regional government tends to wait passively as its budget is not enough to cover post-disaster management. “We request that the mechanism be evaluated and the fulfillment of survivors’ rights be prioritized. Administrative and procedural aspects must not hinder the process,” he said on Friday (27/9/2019).

The establishment of an ad hoc agency, similar to the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency in Aceh in 2004, was proposed. However, a proposal to create an agency with special authorities and a one-stop work system that avoided complicated mechanisms was not approved.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Sukron, Laila and his mother in law, who survived the soil liquefaction and earthquake, live in an emergency shelter in Balaroa, West Palu, Central Sulawesi, a year after the disaster as seen on Monday (23/9/2019). More than 300 families or around 1,200 people live in the shelter.

Under the current mechanism, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), the Public Works and Housing Ministry and the Social Affairs Ministry are the backbone of disaster management. The Public Works and Housing Ministry forms a task force to tackle several projects, such as construction of housing and Gumbasa irrigation culverts. The regional government only has to provide data.

Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola said much work needed to be done to complete the priority programs of post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction. Bureaucracy also hinders projects. The mechanism adheres to standards of the government’s goods and services procurement, and the prolonged process of foreign aid in the central government.

Infrastructure construction of priority programs can only begin next year. This year, only designs and construction project auctions can be finished. “We are continuing to push for this to be done quickly so that we can meet the completion target of 2020,” Longki said. (VDL)

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Workers complete the construction of permanent housing in the Tondo area, Palu city, Central Sulawesi, on Thursday (26/9/2019)for survivors of the soil liquefaction and tsunami triggered by the earthquake a year ago. From the plan of 1,000 houses to be built in the area, only 88 units have been finished and 300 others are being built.