Anita Rachman

Officials Ponder Next Steps In West Sumatra Relief Efforts

The critical emergency period immediately following the Sept. 30 West Sumatra earthquake has passed, and the government is now faced with the question of how to best move forward, especially over the next two weeks as the risk of the spread of disease at shelters increases.

Ade Edward, head of West Sumatra’s Disaster Management Agency, said on Monday that the local government was now discussing alternative possibilities for sheltering quake victims.

“People should not be forced to live under plastic tents for weeks,” Ade said.

“In the next two weeks we believe people should no longer live in tents. We should provide them with another, more appropriate shelter that can stand for a longer time.”

He said the provincial government was considering providing temporary bamboo houses similar to those provided to people in Yogyakarta after the 2006 quake.

Ade said bamboo houses provided better protection than tents and that the local government was considering getting the houses from Yogyakarta, “because there is not so much bamboo here, only in Agam district. We have talked to people in Yogyakarta about the possibility of sending pre-fabricated bamboo houses from there.”

Ade also highlighted concerns over the local availability of medicines. He said that in the next two weeks, people would be at greater risk of contracting upper respiratory tract infections and diarrhea.

“I am afraid that the medicine we have now is only sufficient for next week. But the weeks after that? People don’t get better or totally cured instantly, they still need medicine,” he said. Ade said people not only needed doctors, but nurses who were available to help them at any time.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the Ministry of Health’s Crisis Center, said that to date, the ministry had sent seven to eight tons of medicines, including those to treat respiratory tract infections and diarrhea.

Rustam said that the incidence of both diseases had actually decreased over time.

He said respiratory tract cases had started to spread on Oct. 6 and had peaked three days later. He said that of the 451 cases reported to the government only 20 cases remained.

Rustam said diarrhea was rampant from Oct. 6 to Saturday, with a peak of about 3,000 cases on Saturday.

“But now, only 148 [cases] are left. So we handled it well,” he said.

He said the ministry is ready to supply more medicine if the province needs it, and that there were 3,764 medical personnel working with the earthquake victims.

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