Indonesia hastens house construction for Lombok earthquake victims

JAKARTA: Work to construct permanent houses for earthquake victims in Lombok, Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province, is estimated to be completed this year, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported the country’s vice-president Jusuf Kalla as saying.

The construction has been delayed due to a shortage of materials.

Statistics show that the Lombok earthquake victims need at least 30,000 permanent and earthquakeresistant houses.

The Indonesian government has set a target of building 58,000 such houses.

More than 1,500 additional personnel from the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, military, police and local community have been deployed to help speed up the construction.

Three powerful earthquakes rocked Lombok and Sumbawa Islands in West Nusa Tenggara on July 29, Aug 5 and 9, last year.

Some 73,000 homes were seriously damaged.

The powerful seven-magnitude earthquake on Aug 5 alone devastated 75 per cent of the buildings in North Lombok district.

The death toll on Lombok Island reached 555.

More than 1,300 people were injured, and nearly 353,000 were internally displaced.

Damage and losses are currently estimated at 7.7 trillion rupiah (US$528 million). — Bernama