Get Ready! Permanent Housing For 2018 Palu Earthquake And Tsunami Victims Will Be Withdrawn By BPBD If Not Occupied

Huntap for victims of the 2018 earthquake and tsunami in Palu City. (Antara)

PALU - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) has confirmed that it will withdraw permanent housing (huntap) for victims of the Palu earthquake and tsunami in 2018 if it is not occupied for 3 consecutive months.

Head of the Emergency and Logistics Division of BPBD Palu, Bambang said, the ultimatum was addressed by BPBD to recipients of permanent housing (huntap) built by the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center).

"In the contents of the written statement, if it is left blank for 3 consecutive months without written notification, the huntap will be withdrawn by the Palu City Government," said Bambang, who was contacted, Monday, June 20.

Based on the Antara report, the huntap was assisted by the AHA Center for victims of the earthquake, tsunami, and liquefaction in Palu as a form of concern for ASEAN organizations for natural disasters in 2018.

The permanent housing is expected to ease the burden on the affected residents if they are not used by the recipients, it creates jealousy for other affected residents.

On the one hand, continued Bambang, until now, there are still many disaster victims who have not received proper housing, so they have no other choice but to live in temporary shelters (huntara).

"The permanent housing will be withdrawn to be redistributed to other residents who are entitled to a temporary shelter," said Bambang.

He revealed, that from the results of the field identification carried out by his party, it was found that approximately 14 residential areas had the potential to be withdrawn by the Palu City Government, because they began to be handed over in stages in 2020 and 2021 and the beneficiaries had not yet been occupied.

According to him, this effort has been carried out twice by the Palu BPBD. Previously, from dozens of dwellings that were threatened with withdrawal, two of them were handed over to other residents who did not have a shelter.

"Those who had been withdrawn from their shelters were still included in the list of housing assistance recipients, but they were no longer at the location in the AHA Center's shelters. The method is the same as we did before," said Bambang.

He added, BPBD Palu had given a grace period for beneficiaries to immediately occupy and utilize the dwelling no later than June 28, 2022.

The AHA Center's temporary shelter assistance was built as many as 100 units and named the ASEAN Village in the relocation area of ​​Tondo Village, Ulujadi District.

"If the time limit that has been set has not been occupied, then we are forced to carry out executions, because there are still many people in need. We hope that the temporary shelter recipients will be wise in responding to this policy," he said.