Tiwul, 47, was among 3,000 families displaced from their homes when Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java erupted in 2010. He and 194 other families have found a new place to live, two kilometers away from their original homes in Jambu village, which was buried under the volcano’s ashes and lava.
“We’ll try to make this village similar to our old village,” Tiwul said, standing in front of his new home. “We designed the spatial planning ourselves so that old neighbors can still live side by side.”
After the volcano erupted, some of the victims started to rebuild their lives with grants of Rp 30 million ($3,180) per family from the government and donor countries. They built medium-sized houses from bricks and steel on plots of land measuring up to 150 square meters. The houses were designed to withstand earthquakes, which regularly shake the region.
Tiwul said he was grateful for the assistance but had to seek extra loans to finish his house. He was also worried about returning to his old livelihood as a farmer.
“Some of us now work as carpenters or construction workers. But we’re farmers,” he said. “The government had said it would help us become farmers again.”
Yohan Rahmat Santosa, a supervisor for disaster risk reduction at the International Organization for Migration, said those affected by the Mount Merapi eruption had to leave their land because it was too dangerous to stay. And because most of them were farmers, he said, many have lost their livelihoods.
“Agencies and the government were training the victims to run microbusinesses by giving them technical assistance and market access,” he said.
Now, he said, some of the villagers sell traditional snacks in Yogyakarta while others make money by mining sand from the volcano.
To help them rebuild their lives, the government, donor countries and aid agencies have allocated about $94 million for the Java Reconstruction Fund, which also helps victims of the Central Java earthquake in 2006.
The JRF was created by the World Bank, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank, the Netherlands, Britain, Canada, Denmark and Finland.
At this point, about 500 families have been relocated to permanent shelters, but 1,100 families are still living in temporary shelters. When the JRF’s mandate ends in December, the responsibility for relocation will fall on the government.
Heri Supriyadi, the head of Kepuharjo village, said the entire relocation process could be completed by 2013, while the construction of infrastructure and public facilities could be completed by 2015.
“The relocation process has been lengthy,” he said. “They did not give us the housing grant all at once. But that’s a good thing.
“The grant was given to us in parts, and we had to meet specific targets. We had to build the houses properly ourselves. We learned a lot about construction, managing money and accountability. We felt empowered.”
George Soraya, a senior operations officer at the World Bank, said relief workers have used a community-based approach known as rekompak , from the Indonesian word kompak which means “solid” or “harmonious.”
Rekompak aims to empower villagers and help them get back on their own feet, he said, often allowing them to improve their livelihoods.
“The community-based reconstruction program is extremely transparent when it comes to spending, because the villagers are the ones who are responsible for the spending,” Soraya said.
Under the rekompak scheme, victims were divided into groups. Each person received Rp 30 million for reconstruction, and their group members were tasked with monitoring how they spent it.
“So if one member fails to spend the money accordingly, we’ll stop the funding,” Soraya said. “This way everyone shares the same responsibility.”
He said the rekompak program was first implemented for tsunami recovery efforts in Aceh before being replicated in Yogyakarta after an earthquake in 2006 and the Mount Merapi eruption. It is also being replicated in other countries.
“I’m proud to say that through the rekompak approach, in Bantul, Yogyakarta, we have successfully been able to build 300,000 houses in 18 months with a very high level of accountability,” Soraya said. “In terms of post-disaster housing reconstruction, it is the fastest [method] in the world.”
Max Pohan, the deputy minister of national development planning, said the government would ensure the recovery process around Mount Merapi continued even after the donor mandate ended.
“Disaster risk management and recovery is among the president’s top 11 priorities” he said.
He added that the government had allocated about Rp 400 billion for recovery programs around Mount Merapi since 2010 and would disburse another Rp 500 billion this year and next year.
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