VIVAnews - The Australian government has prepared A$ 15 million for the rehabilitation and reconstruction in West Sumatra after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit the region on September 30, 2009. The commitment to offer the assistance was conveyed by the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Falmer in Padang on Tuesday, March 2.
Falmer was in Padang to attend the launch of public education campaign on earthquake-resistant houses which was jointly held by the Indonesian and Australian governments.
According to Falmer, the most important thing in the campaign is to enable the government and the locals building houses that are safe and able to scale down the impact of earthquakes.
He also said 70 percent of severely damaged houses and public facilities during the earthquake were due to the constructions that do not meet standards.
In the future, the people and the government of West Sumatra are expected to be able to create a policy on building constructions requiring foundations that are strong enough to endure earthquake shocks.
The policy is highly needed because West Sumatra is an area that is prone to disasters, especially earthquakes. The 30 September earthquake, which was also followed by a landslide, damaged 249,833 houses. There were 114,797 severely damaged or collapsed houses, 67,198 fairly defective houses and 67,838 houses with minor breakages.
The earthquake inflicted up to Rp 21.58 trillion of material losses with residential damages make up 74 percent of the total amount of losses.
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Coverage by: Eri Naldi | Padang
Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
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