Indonesia: The UN revises Yogyakarta Earthquake Response Plan

Yogyakarta, 4th July 2006 - The United Nations and its partners have revised the Indonesia Earthquake 2006 Response Plan (ERP). Based on thorough assessment and planning, the total requirement of the revised ERP is now $80,111,735, of which $19,869,041 has already been received or committed. This leaves a shortfall of $60,242,964.
The revised ERP highlights critical emergency needs that have not yet been met due to lack of funding, and aims to begin early recovery efforts while helping the Government of Indonesia formulate strategies that will move the earthquake response beyond the emergency phase.

To date, 141,796 tarpaulins or tents have been distributed; coverage of 37% against the number of homeless families. This figure is projected to rise to 72% by the end of July when items confirmed in the pipeline are included. A further 100,000 tarpaulins are still urgently required. However, this emergency shelter support will not address medium-term shelter/housing needs during the time it will take to reconstruct homes, since tents and tarpaulins-based structures have a lifespan of at best six months. Some form of a more durable transitional shelter/housing is still needed to bridge the gap between emergency shelter and permanent housing.

More than 1.7 million beneficiaries have received more than 6,000 MT of various food commodities by the Government of Indonesia, NGOs and the UN. A further 115,000 beneficiaries have received 877 MT fortified biscuits and noodles.

Over 300,000 litre of water has been trucked to communities with disrupted water supply. This service benefits 20,000 people a day. Over 300 wells have been cleaned and over 807 emergency toilets have been constructed by the Government of Indonesia and aid organizations. However, the current assistance is only fulfilling a fraction of the overall needs. An estimated 30,000 toilets need to be repaired or reconstructed to meet emergency needs, not to mention the many more needed for long term sanitation coverage.

A surveillance system covering 11 diseases has been set up in 60 puskesmas across the affected area. Measles immunization coverage stands at 76.6% and tetanus immunization at 45.3%. However, a very large number of severely injured people require institutional and community-based rehabilitation in order to prevent permanent disability. There is limited capacity to provide this, given that nearly 45,000 injured people required hospitalisation. Despite the sufficiency of medical supplies, there is still an urgent need for the provision of medical services in areas where puskesmas are damaged, as well as basic equipment.

Other areas of urgent unmet emergency needs include the education and protection sectors, transitional housing, livelihoods and agriculture. Support requirements (i.e. logistic, information technology and Emergency Communication, and coordination and security) to facilitate the management and implementation of the operation are also covered by the ERP.

In terms of duration and assistance, the ERP will implement activities for the next five months and does not aim to cover all affected parties. Significant assistance is expected to come from the Government of Indonesia and its development partners particularly, in terms of housing, schools and health infrastructure. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee Country team - which consists of UN agencies, Red Cross Society, representative of international NGOs - will work with the World Bank and others to support the Government of Indonesia in formulating a longer-term Recovery Plan, using the "Preliminary Damage and Loss Assessment - Yogyakarta and Central Java Natural Disaster" as its start point.

For further information, please contact:

Dora Cheok: 3141308 Ext.841 or +811 825207, cheok@un.org
Laksmita Noviera: 3141308 Ext.126 or +811 840820, noviera@un.org
Martha Andriana: 0813 27664 134