JAKARTA, March 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of children are living in
makeshift shelters six months after a devastating earthquake and tsunami
pounded the Indonesian city of Palu, aid agencies said Tuesday, as
authorities wrestle with a “painfully slow” recovery.
The magnitude 7.5 quake and subsequent deluge razed swathes of the coastal
town on Sulawesi island last September, killing more than 4,300 people,
according to Indonesia’s national disaster agency.
At least 170,000 residents from Palu and surrounding districts are still
displaced and entire neighbourhoods are still in ruins, despite life
returning to normal in other areas of the city.
“Six months after this disaster we are extremely concerned about the
estimated 6,000 children still living in temporary accommodation such as
tents, as well as the thousands more that are living in homes that have been
damaged,” said Tom Howells of Save the Children.
Salsa, 10, and her parents have lived in a tent with a dirt floor ever
since the towering waves tore through their home in Donggala near the
epicentre of the quake.
“The light here is from a battery lamp,” the fifth grader said.
“Often when we sleep there are a lot of mice.”
Monsoon rains have fanned outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, while
residents in hard-hit areas have been forced to navigate open sewers and
mounds of sharp rubble.
The force of September’s quake saw entire neighbourhoods levelled by
liquefaction — a process where the ground starts behaving like a liquid and
swallows up the earth like quicksand.
The Red Cross said recovery has been “painfully slow” and often complex.
“How can you rebuild a coastline, city or community when large parts of it
are simply swallowed by the earth?” said the organisation’s chief Indonesia
representative Jan Gelfand.
Apart from the damage to tens of thousands of buildings, the disaster
destroyed fishing boats, shops and irrigation systems, robbing residents of
their income.
“People in affected communities need a regular source of income to sustain
themselves and regain a sense of normalcy,” said Christophe Bahuet, the UN
development agency’s Indonesia representative.
Indonesia has said the damage bill in Palu topped $900 million. The World
Bank has offered the country up to $1 billion in loans to get the city back
on its feet.
The vast Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-prone
nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of
Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
Last year was a particularly tough, however, with more than 2,500 disasters
ranging from a series of deadly earthquakes on Lombok island to landslides
and volcanic eruptions.