The three-week state of emergency period designated by the regional West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) government in response to devastating earthquakes striking the island of Lombok has expired.
The NTB Provincial government is transitioning things into the recovery phase after the emergency response period ended on Saturday—it had been declared on Aug. 6 after a 7.0 earthquake struck the island. The 7.0 quake was followed by even more tremors and over a thousand aftershocks that have let to the deaths of at least 555 victims and led over 300,000 to evacuate.
The Lombok earthquakes were not declared a national disaster, which took foreign aid off the table. It was a controversial decision, but it’s been staunchly defended by the government, which has said that as long as the regional government is not incapacitated, there is no need for outside help.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) says it will be carrying out recovery in five main sectors affected by the earthquakes.
“The recovery will be in the residential, infrastructure, social, public, and economic sectors and some will be cross-sectorial,” BNPB director Willlem Rampangilei said on Monday, as quoted by Kabar24.
The BNPB head made the statement after a meeting yesterday on the acceleration of post-earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction in the province at the vice president’s office.
BNPB is currently preparing a rehabilitation and reconstruction action plan, Rampangilei said.
Previously, the government had received a request from BNPB for IDR6 trillion (US$410.4 million) to handle disaster.
To date, IDR1.9 trillion (US$129.9 million) in funds has been disbursed by the government, reports Kabar24.
