JAKARTA, KOMPAS -- Rehabilitation and reconstruction are two hugely important steps for disaster survivors in reorganizing their lives and making better preparations for the future. However, disaster recovery is often too focused on repairing infrastructure at the expense of improving the affected people’s sociocultural life.
The neglect of sociocultural aspects in disaster recovery often leads to further problems, as happened in Central Sulawesi after the recent earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction. A team of researchers from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences’ (LIPI) population research center highlights these problems in its recent study.
At a seminar in Jakarta on Tuesday (15/1/2019), LIPI researcher Gusti Ayu Ketut Surtiari said the team had found that farmers and fishermen surviving the disasters in Central Sulawesi found it hard to restore their livelihoods. The lack of a database of survivors’ profession and the affected regions is believed to be behind this.
The team also found problems with temporary housing. “Different standards between temporary homes have led to social gaps. Some of them have no public toilets or clean water supply. Others have broken down despite being new. Some are located in flood-prone areas,” Ayu said.
According to her, the lack of people’s participation in the construction of the temporary housing has led to these problems. This has even led to locals’ refusal to being relocated to the temporary homes. Some of these refusals have turned into movements, including in communities affected by liquefaction in Balaroa and Petobo, Palu.
The research provides two recommendations to help locals obtain new homes and recover their livelihoods. “The government must maintain the quality [of the new homes] at least in line with the minimum standards, so that the survivors may soon enjoy normal lives and better protection from disaster. Quality temporary housing may be a transition toward improved reconstruction,” Ayu said.
The research also recommends that all relocation plans be communicated properly to the affected people. “This is the key to successful relocation,” Ayu said.
Community-based
National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) director of disadvantaged regions, transmigration and villages Sumedi Andono Mulyo, who spoke at the seminar, said community-based approaches should ideally be implemented in post-disaster recovery. However, this process takes time amid political and economic pressures that necessitate immediate recovery.
Bappenas senior planner Suprayoga Hadi, who serves as secretary at the Central Sulawesi-West Nusa Tenggara recovery and reconstruction assistance and coordination team, said there were shortcomings in the Central Sulawesi recovery
master plan. These include an objection from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) regarding the disaster risk map.
Suprayoga said some temporary housing areas were located far from survivors’ original or new permanent homes, but this problem would be resolved with improved access roads. Meanwhile, the team has also made efforts to accommodate the BMKG’s objections. “The issues not accommodated in the [recovery master plan] will be accommodated in the spatial planning revision. This new spatial planning will determine and regulate regional development in the next 20 years,” he said.
LIPI social sciences and humanities division deputy head Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti said in her opening speech that the research reaffirmed the importance of integrated multidisciplinary research in disaster mitigation, which could be achieved by putting social sciences on equal standing with exact sciences.
Nuke said that, since the Aceh tsunami in 2004, numerous disaster mitigation efforts had been carried out, but only partially. “No clear synergy is visible in the mitigation of the three most recent disasters, namely those in Lombok, Palu and the Sunda Strait,” she said.
Learning from recurring disasters, Nuke said, LIPI’s social sciences and humanities division would establish a disaster research center in the hope of producing research that could contribute to improved policies. (AIK)