Minister of Home Affairs: Aceh Regional Government Fund Needs to be Extended for Disaster Recovery

JAKARTA - Home Minister Tito Karnavian said that the special autonomy fund or otsus for the Aceh Provincial Government needed to be extended for post-disaster recovery from the flash flood that had an impact in various areas some time ago.

Based on the Ministry of Home Affairs' calculations, the fastest post-bencanap recovery takes three years.

This is because many public facilities must be repaired, ranging from bridges and roads that must be permanent because they are currently temporary, and repairs to educational facilities.

"Maybe one of the drivers is that we think that the need for this otsus fund to be extended in Aceh, if the country's fiscal capacity allows," said Tito during a meeting with Commission II of the DPR, as reported by ANTARA, Monday, April 13.

Currently, there are 36 thousand houses of the community that are damaged or lost.

According to him, Aceh also needs river normalization. "River normalization is about 79 rivers that must be dredged and it is long. In addition to width, it is also long, some of which are up to 30 kilometers," he said.

Titomenambahkan masyarakat Aceh menginginkan agar dana otsus diperpanjang dan jumlahnya 2 persen dari Dana Alokasi Umum (DAU).

The Minister of Home Affairs said that although the Human Development Index (HDI) level in Aceh had improved, the poverty rate in Aceh was still high and unemployment was high.

"And if we look at the situation, especially there is a disaster, we see it is quite rational. Because this disaster that happened yesterday in November," he said.

On the other hand, Titomeny said last week there was heavy rain which resulted in a number of points experiencing landslides in Aceh. Two days ago, flooding also occurred again in Pidie Jaya, which was accompanied by mud material.

In fact, he said, previously the government and the community had made various improvements to roads and public facilities in the area.

"This is the situation on the ground, the road is broken again, even though it has been opened. This is now hard work for all of the TNI, Polri, then the Ministry of PU, BNPB, all are working to normalize again," he said.