PALU INDONESIA EARTHQUAKE (19-26 OCT)

Background

On 28 September 2018, a series of earthquakes struck Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province. The strongest was a 7.4 magnitude quake at a depth of 10km and with its epicentre close to the provincial capital, Palu. The series of earthquakes did not only trigger a tsunami striking beaches in Palu and Donggala, but also liquefaction in 3 major spots and landslides which resulted in damages, impacts and constrained access to humanitarian relief. On 30 September 2018, the President of Indonesia requested for international aid. CREST, together with Methodist Crisis Relief & Development (MCRD) and TOUCH International (Singapore) joined hands to assist local partner Gesa Bentara in sending relief items following their rapid assessment.

Objective 1. Logistics – To purchase relief items in Makassar and arrange for transport to Palu. 2. To establish distribution base in Palu and secure a temporary warehouse. 3. To identify and distribute relief items to vulnerable communities. 4. To work with various local aid agencies in further needs assessment.

Team Member Team Leader : CK Cheong (CREST) Assistant Team Leader : Jacob Lee (MCRD) Travel Log : Jennifer Goh (TOUCH) Treasurer : Jerial Chong (Volunteer) Photographer : Simon Kong (MCRD) & Craig Chan (TOUCH)

Travel Events

Date Event

Activities

a. Logistics: Purchasing & Transporting Relief Items for 100 households to Palu

In their initial assessment report, Gesa Bentara advised that it is difficult to get relief supplies in Palu City and Poso. The local government, NGOs and International NGOs are getting the supplies from Makassar City which is located 800KM by road away from Palu.

Our team had decided to take the flight to Makassar, purchase relief supplies there and arrange for road transportation to Palu. The journey was estimated to take 27 hours.

b. Distribution

Location: Boneoge, Donggala (S 0° 39.210', E 119° 43.682')

Local Partners: Sekolah Relawan

Activities: We were required to work with our local partners and the local community in this distribution. We are given an empty space in an open public kitchen to set up our distribution centre. The main challenge is the open area where the whole distribution process and relief items can be seen by the public. There is likelihood for breach in security and chaos and therefore used whatever resources available to set up security parameters. 3 local volunteers were hired as security guards to provide crowd control. The whole distribution process went well until at the end when people from a different village came and requested for relief items.

Assessment:

Logistics: This area is a 2 hour journey from Palu. Most NGOs, and volunteers will stop and distribute to the nearer centres. This community has not received much assistance.

Damage: The tsunami had totally destroyed their village and currently the survivors seek refuge on a hill. Many houses have been damaged. Although some are still standing, the people are too fearful to stay in them and preferred to stay in tents.

Livelihood: Most of the villagers are into fishing and own their boat or work as hired hands. Most of the boats are undamaged. However, the cost of going out to fish is greater than the earnings. The price of fish has dropped from Rp. 300,000 to Rp. 75,000 per box. Local and neighbouring residents are afraid to eat the fish after seeing many dead bodies in the sea.

Some had gone to fish in Balikpapan and sell their catch there. But it means being away from their homes and families for a month.

Needs: Main needs are in psycho-social support. The survivors are too scared to return to their homes. Most of the fishermen are waiting for market demand and price to return to normal before they go out to the sea again and have no other means to earn or generate income for daily needs. It is estimated that they will continue to stay in the temporary shelters for another 2 to 3 months or until the meteorological department cancels the earthquake alert.

Location: Pasko Patmos, Sigi (S 1° 0.453', E 119° 56.536')

Local Partners: Ibu Liesje & Grace from Gereja Protestan Indonesia (GPI)

Activities: Most of the IDPs at Patmos had lost their homes due to liquefaction in Petobo (8km from Patmos). This camp is not managed by the government but by volunteers from the churches. About 50 households have seek shelter in this camp and majority of them are Muslims.

Assessment

SHELTER: 8 houses out of 22 are totally destroyed, the rest are badly damaged and not safe to live in. At this moment, there is common kitchen.

WASH: 1 latrine and 2 are under construction.

HEALTH: There is a mobile medical clinic twice a week but no medical facility nearby. Currently, there is a lot of mosquitoes and houseflies. Only 15 households have received mosquito nets. 1 child has been hospitalized on 24 Oct morning due to suspected dengue.

LIVELIHOOD: Carpentry, animal husbandry (pigs), rice planting, school teachers, government clerks, church workers.

UTILITIES: Electricity supply is from nearby house, no agreement has been made on how much to pay for usage.

Water comes from mountain via pipes. Water is pumped 3 times a week to fill a 1,500 L water storage tank for the whole community.

Total relief items distributed:

c. Other Assessment

Name: Dr Christina from Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Injili Indonesia (STTII), Palu.

Location:

Omu, Salva, Tuva (50+ households)
Pantai Barat – Balassang (50+ households)
Kecamatan Dalo – Lombosu, Jonojindi (25 households)

Relief Items:

Food items (cooking oil, rice, salt, sugar, coffee, tea, milk)
b. Blankets
Tarpaulin sheets

Budget: Rp. 1,250,000

Financial Report

84% of the funds was delivered directly to the hands of the survivors

Recommendations

1. Short Term – Public Kitchen, Water Storage & Latrine

Location: Pasko Patmos, Sigi (S 1° 0.453', E 119° 56.536')

This camp lacks proper management and the volunteers have not been trained to respond to this crisis. There is currently 50 households in the camp and the number is expected to increase due to overcrowding in many other camps. Facilities in this camp that need to be upgraded are:-

Public Kitchen – There is no common area for cooking and this increases the risk of fire
Latrine – There is only 1 toilet, 2 is under construction. Based on Sphere Humanitarian Standard, there should be 1 latrine for every 20 people. At least 10 more toilets is needed in this camp
Water Storage – There is only 1 unit of 1,500L water storage tank. An additional 5 units is needed for 50 households based on the estimation of 6 members per household.

Sigi District is a remote area and the needs are plentiful. The IDPs will stay in this camp for the next 6 to12 months until the transitional or permanent shelters are ready.

Budget: RM 10,000

2. Mid Term – Transitional Shelters

Currently, the need for transitional shelter is the highest in the list. Based on data based released by Reliefweb, an estimated 66,238 families are in need of a shelter. The challenges faced in building transitional or permanent shelters are:-

Cost of materials is estimated to be 2.5 to 3 times more expensive compared to Lombok Earthquake due to inland transportation costs.
Logistics, storage and manpower are required.
Need to employ a local contract staff to implement this project.

Budget: To build 100 units transitional shelters, a budget of RM 324,000 is required.

3. Long Term – Community Centre

A community centre project requires detail assessment and long term partnership with the local government. CREST has experience in Myanmar in building, developing and sustaining 16 Early Childhood and Development Centres for the 10 years since Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

Budget: RM 100,000

4. On Going – Training

Training has always been our focus: to equip the residents in disaster awareness, preparedness and to equip the local partners in disaster response.

Several partners have expressed for the need for training.

Budget: RM 10,000 (2 to 3 Training Events)

5. Livelihood

To empower the community to be self-sustaining by way of income generating activities. Possible livelihood projects are in farming & fishing.

Budget: RM 100,000