Construction Starts on 5,000 Quake-Resistant Houses
Tuesday, 06 June, 2006 | 13:47 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Rapid Response Team (ACT) started constructing quake-resistant houses in Yogyakarta. The national humanity organization will build 148 houses in Kedaton hamlet, Plered District, Bantul.
Building, which started last Saturday, is a part of the Rapid Response Team’s (ACT) Yogya Recovery program plan to build 5,000 houses in Yogyakarta and Central Java. Construction was officially started by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Chairman, Hidayat Nur Wahid yesterday.

“We target 148 units which will be finished in a month,” said ACT's Director Ahyudin. “The refugees’ condition is so pitiable, so we accelerated the construction,” he said. According to Ahyudin, the type of house currently being built is equivalent to type 45 which was designed by a Japanese civil engineering graduate.

House construction is estimated to cost Rp45 million. For 5,000 houses, the cost is Rp225 billion. Although the fund is derived from ACT, the organization tries to involve society in construction. “Supervisors and consultants are still necessary,” he said.

Separately, the civil and physical facilitation expert from Gajah Mada University (UGM), Ikaputra, said UGM has also designed a prototype of a cheap temporary house, only Rp500,000, and resistant to earthquakes. The main material of the 3x3 meters simple house is bamboo. “This is only for temporary, for emergency conditions,” said Ikaputra.

The Yogyakarta provincial government has actually planned to erect tent villages for temporary settlement. The model of the big tent which usually accommodates five families will be replaced by a small 3x4 meters tent for each family. “The goal is that the family is still solid,” said Bamband Susanto Priyohadi, Deputy Head of Disaster Relief and Refugees Coordinating Unit.

Two hundred thousand tents will be set up and used for six to eight months. “Up to now, we have received 1,200 tents from China, 500 from Kuwait, 300 from Korea, and 1,000 from the National Disaster Management Coordination Board (Bakornas),” said Bambang.

Ari Aji and Syaiful Amin