BANTUL (Indonesia), June 3: The United Nations said on Saturday it was in a race against time to help survivors still struggling to get food, shelter and urgent medical care one week after the Indonesian earthquake.
Tens of thousands of homeless prepared for their eighth night out in the open under makeshift tents, while others went into their second week awaiting treatment at overwhelmed hospitals.
UN officials said bottlenecks in getting aid to the needy had been mostly resolved but after days of watching the death toll increase, they said the relief effort would be speeded up to prevent further loss of life.
“We are redoubling efforts on all fronts, trying to race against time, knowing the population could quickly go down to the level of hardship,” Puji Pujiono, the UN’s deputy area humanitarian coordinator, said.
“We are continuing to do what we can,” he said.
The United Nations has said 100 million dollars is needed over the next six months to cope with the scale of the devastation.
One week on, those whose homes were not flattened were picking through the rubble, looking for whatever could be salvaged and fearing that disaster could strike again.
“I still feel traumatized because one week later, we’re still having tremors,” said Warno, a 39-year-old schoolteacher, as neighbours repaired the tiles ripped off his roof in the village of Warung Boto.
“We all feel unsafe about sleeping inside,” he said. “We need money to rebuild our house.”
While two of his children are healthy, his six-year-old daughter is still vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea, likely due to shock. Warno’s 84-year-old father died on Friday.
At least 6,234 people were killed, some 46,000 others injured and more than 139,000 homes in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces either damaged or completely destroyed.
Indonesia has deployed around 3,000 troops to the quake zone.—AFP
