Indonesia: More shelter aid needed five months after Yogyakarta earthquake

(New York: 20 October 2006): As many as 50,000 families who lost their homes in last spring's Yogyakarta earthquake do not have sufficient shelter for the approaching rainy season, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Indonesia.

To address these families' needs, the Government of Indonesia, United Nations agencies and other humanitarian partners have developed a joint "roof first" strategy. To date, 23,000 roof structures have been constructed and tens of thousands of additional roofs are planned to be delivered by early 2007. The United Nations and other members of the shelter cluster have been negotiating for added funding with the World Bank and donor community, with good indication that resources will be made available.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Indonesia's Gadjah Mada University have developed several training programmes on the Government's housing reconstruction programme for the teams working in Central Java province, with a focus on the "roof first" programme and permanent housing construction. Similar training is being planned for Yogyakarta province.

The preliminary conclusions of the inter-cluster assessment covering the areas of water, sanitation and shelter indicate that 40 per cent of all those who lost their housing remain in insufficient shelter to last the rainy season, which translates into approximately 50,000 families in need of urgent shelter assistance. The full assessment results will be published at the beginning of November.

The magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java on 27 May 2006, killing nearly 6,000 people and injuring nearly 38,000. More than 300,000 homes were completely destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the earthquake, and hundreds of thousands of additional structures suffered damage. The earthquake's impact was particularly severe in the city of Yogyakarta and in Klaten and Bantul districts, which suffered the greatest losses. From the beginning, the Government of Indonesia has led the response and reconstruction effort in the wake of the earthquake, with the support of the United Nations and wider humanitarian community.

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 917 892 1679; Kristen Knutson, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 9262; Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int.