Indonesia prepares temporary house sites for displaced people in central Sulawesi

Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-11 21:38:42|Editor: xuxin
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JAKARTA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has identified locations of temporary houses for those displaced by the recent earthquake and tsunami disasters that severely hit Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, as activities to search more bodies would be terminated on Friday, an official said here on Thursday.

The identified locations were Duyu and Ngatabaru subdistricts in western Palu and city of Sigi for former residents of Palu's most devastated villages of Balaroa and Petobo respectively.

The two villages encountered liquefaction phenomenon during the earthquake that hit on Sept. 28, making houses and thousands of their occupants sucked down into the earth.

The liquefaction process prompted by the earthquake has made the ground in the two villages liquified, failing to support all construction above.

Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said not all displaced people would be relocated to the temporary houses as some of them would return to their houses after renovation efforts to fix minor damage were conducted.

They would eventually get permanent houses from the government after the project concludes within one or two years. The housing projects for the displaced were part of rehabilitation and reconstruction programs in the affected province.

"The permanent houses built for those who entirely lost their houses would be earthquake-proof ones," Sutopo said in his office here.

According to the data released by the BNPB, the disasters have displaced 87,725 people, of whom 78,994 were taking shelter in 112 camps in the province.

Sutopo added that activities to search bodies of those perished in the disasters was extended one day to Friday to accommodate requests of people in the affected areas.

He said so far search teams have managed to retrieve 2,073 bodies from the debris of collapsed buildings and houses. Most of them have been buried in mass graves and public cemeteries.

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