NB: This article from Sep 11, 2018, was republished on Apr. 21, 2024
By Taryn Wilson
Mataram, Indonesia, Sep 11, 2018 (EFE).- After a series of major earthquakes, residents in the devastated north of Indonesia’s Lombok island are now facing health and economic problems as they try to rebuild their homes and their lives.
At least 555 died in the quakes, National Agency for Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Aug 24. And with more than 1,500 aftershocks and the island continuing to shake, recovery is being hampered.
On the road that runs around the north coast, there are few sound buildings left standing and demolition is underway amid the rubble where villages once stood. Residents told EFE they are too scared to return to the remaining structures, which include shuttered roadside businesses.
More than 450,000 people are living out in the open or in communal tents in camps, Oxfam estimates. Here, residents are faced with new challenges and hardships that are psychological, physical and financial.
Outside the destroyed Tanjung General Regional Hospital, where interior curtains flap outside in the breeze and dusty hospital beds sit abandoned, a field hospital has been set up. Its public information officer, Agus Ibrahim, 25, told EFE that almost 5,800 people have been treated there since the main magnitude-6.9 quake on Aug. 5, mostly for fractures and head injuries. The last death of the 85 he has on record was on Aug. 11.
Now, he says, the hospital is treating an increasing number of patients for diarrhea and ailments associated with lack of sanitation in the camps, as well as for malaria. Agus said the hospital is in need of more medicines to treat these conditions as well as general fevers.
On each side of the hospital along the road stretching around the north coast, flattened villages are interspersed with camps of tents.
In Desa Malaka Teluk Kodek, there are 800 people in tents with up to 50 in each. Outside, concrete foundations of homes now sit like a patchwork on the ground among the rubble. Teddy bears hang from washing lines. Anything usable left, such as cookers, cabinets, pots and pans, has been salvaged.
The men say they aren’t able to return to work and are relying on aid donations and water from a well.
In another camp of 850 people, Dusun Lekok residents told EFE that 10-25 people sleep in each of the small tents and shelters, and they expect to remain there for at least a year and a half until their houses are rebuilt.
Many tents are open-ended and lack mosquito nets, leaving residents vulnerable to diseases such as malaria. The rainy season begins in November, posing further problems, but residents there say the deluge of water will be easier to deal with than earthquakes.
The men of the villages work as farmers, fishermen, and in the tourism industry on the nearby Gili islands, but have lost their income for now.
Twenty-three-year-old Nasqiram told EFE he worked at a hotel on Gili Air before the earthquakes and is waiting for his employer to confirm he can return to work.
North Lombok residents all said they are scared of the ongoing shakes – some still over magnitude-5. Many jump at loud noises and vibrations of motorbikes and diggers nearby. Some in the camps said they feel nauseous and have headaches from stress.
“It’s like no life anymore because of the panic and feeling sick,” one villager said.
Red Cross Red Crescent spokesperson Sydney Morton said, “Just when people start to feel some semblance of safety, chronic aftershocks strike again – pulling the rug from under their feet.”
She said the greatest needs for residents that the organization is working on include caring for their psychological well-being, shelter solutions, and the rebuilding of community gathering spaces such as mosques. Many Muslim residents are conducting their prayers out in the open.
Those EFE spoke to said they still need rice, drinking water, tents or tarpaulins, basic medicines and clothing. But they also said that despite the ongoing hardships, they find strength and solace in being together and helping each other.
Tour guide Omar, 42, is living with his family in a tent outside the front of his house. He said children are having problems with asthma due to the dust. He is starting to rebuild their home, this time with wood in the hopes it will withstand future shakes. Some of his customers have donated money with which he buys rice and supplies for his community.
Driving back to central Lombok through the debris-strewn landscape of the north, Omar – usually chatty and quick to laugh – falls silent.
“I’m very sad,” he said. “I’m sad here and I’m sad in my village. But I’m happy I still have my job – I can buy rice and noodles for others who don’t.” EFE
