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Jakarta, 16 April 2020.
On 28 September 2018, the 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Donggala District which also affected Palu City, Sigi District and Parigi Mountong Regencies in Central Sulawesi Province. The earthquake triggered cascading events including near-field tsunami, major liquefaction and landslides, which resulted in direct damages, impacts, and constrained humanitarian relief access. During the emergency phase, upon the request of the National Disaster Management Authority of Indonesia (BNPB), the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) provided support at three levels of coordination, i.e.: strategic coordination, operational coordination, and field level coordination.
As the Government of Indonesia was transitioning to the recovery phase, the AHA Centre was requested to continue its support. Some ASEAN Member States who wished to support the recovery efforts of Indonesia then requested the AHA Centre to facilitate the provision of their assistance. These include the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam who have been providing funding for the construction of permanent houses that will constitute the ASEAN Village. In supporting this construction project, the AHA Centre has also received funding from the Australian Government to support the operational costs.
The main objective of this project is to provide effective support to the priorities identified by the local government authorities in the recovery phase. Based on the identification of needs by the local government, the support is provided through the provision of permanent housing (“huntap”) for the affected communities in Central Sulawesi.
Palu City Government through Dinas Perumahan dan Kawasan Permukiman (Housing and Settlement Office) has requested the AHA Centre to provide huntap for the affected communities of Palu City. Tondo area has been selected as a place to build the ASEAN Village.
The construction process started by a ground-breaking ceremony held on 6 August 2019. Currently, 75 units of permanent houses have been fully built, with each permanent house having 2 bedrooms and 1 latrine. Supported with public facilities such as community street, drainage, clean water access and electricity to all the houses built, the construction will continue into the second phase until the end of 2020, to build additional 25 permanent houses, one musholla using additional funds from Brunei Darussalam and one auxiliary health centre, to be supported by Direct Relief.
With the total amount of USD723,647, the project has so far built 75 units of permanent houses in an area with the size of 22,600 square meters, provided by the Palu City Government.
Speaking during the virtual handover today, the AHA Centre Executive Director, Ms Adelina Kamal, expressed her appreciation to the Government of Indonesia, in particular BNPB and the City of Palu for the collaboration that has been extended to the AHA Centre and for allowing the Centre to learn from the process. “I also wish to thank the Mayor of Palu City for his guidance to conduct the handover of the houses immediately after the construction finished in March 2020, to allow the disaster-affected communities who are still living in temporary shelters to move into the houses and reduce their risks of COVID-19 virus transmission”.
It is expected that the launch ceremony of the ASEAN Village will be done at a later stage, when the construction of another 25 units, a musholla and a health facility is completed, and there is no more COVID-19 virus transmission.
In his speech, the Mayor of Palu City, Mr. Drs. Hidayat, M.Sc, stated that “On behalf of the Palu City Government, we wish to convey that we gladly receive 75 permanent houses handed over by the AHA Centre. We hope these will bring happiness and prosperity to the disaster-affected communities and the people of Palu City in general.”
Click here for the handover video: https://youtu.be/JcJGAq08FHI
and the Live stream Page: https://www.facebook.com/ahacentre/videos/1177733212401664/
Link to Indonesian Language Version Press Release : https://bit.ly/3bfxsMi
About the AHA Centre:
The AHA Centre is an inter-governmental organisation established by ten ASEAN Member States on 17 November 2011 with the aim to facilitate cooperation and coordination amongst ASEAN Member States and with relevant United Nations and international organisations in promoting regional collaboration in disaster management. The AHA Centre is based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
For more information regarding the AHA Centre, please contact:
Communications Officer / Ina Rachmawati
Email: ina.rachmawati@ahacentre.org
www.ahacentre.org
Facebook: fb.com/ahacentre
Twitter: @AHACentre
