Maruarar Promises To Prepare 2,700 Houses For Mount Lewotobi Eruption Survivors

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Pratikno (left) and Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas Maruarar Sirait/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas Maruarar Sirait stated that the government will prepare around 2,700 houses for survivors of the eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki, East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.

"We have prepared up to 2,700 houses," said Maruarar Sirait after holding a Ministerial Level Meeting at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, Jakarta, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 20.

Maruarar said the construction of permanent housing would be carried out if a number of aspects such as forestry, infrastructure, security, and geological permits were completed and mapped.

The construction of permanent housing, he said, would take about 5.5 months. The government is currently mapping which areas will be the locations for the construction of these residences.

"We are ready to build the house, it's just a matter of time management, very well coordinated by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Pratikno)," said Maruarar.

In fact, he said, the preparation and manufacture of raw materials for development will maximize the resources around the people in East Flores. Thus, it will also provide jobs for the surrounding community / survivors.

"In fact, later we will also be ready to make (raw materials) there. So that later we can make jobs for the people there as well. We are still calculating that readiness," he said.

Maruarar explained that the process of relocating survivors to these new residences was through a dialogue approach. The public will be invited to discuss whether they are willing to be relocated to a new place or there are other options they want.

"Because this is moving not only houses, but life. There are decades of living there, even hundreds of years. Then close to the church, close to the market, close to the school. We don't use a top-down approach, but dialogue," he said.

"And it (the dialogue) over and over again, so that it doesn't happen when it is built, for example, because it is not invited to talk, it is not inhabited," he said.