Agung Laksono, coordinating minister for people`s welfare said after a limited cabinet meeting on Wednesday the funds had been disbursed and would be distributed by the ministry of public works to the regions affected by the floods.
He said a total of US$30 million had also been made available from the Java Trust Foundation kept in the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) as a leftover from the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake funds.
The funds, he said, would be allocated for recovering the economic activities of the people living on the slopes of Mount Merapi who had lost their resources and livelihood following the mountain`s eruption in October 2010.
"It is for improving their economy mostly for those who have become poor, whose houses and sources of income have been destroyed including livestock, farms and their number is huge," he said.
Agung said earlier the government had already spent Rp30 billion from various ministries and the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) to deal with the mountain`s eruption in 2010.
He said the management of the volcanic mud flow would still be handled by the provincial administrations with the support of the central government through the BNPB.
The head of natural disaster management of the Agency of National Unity, Politics and Disaster Management in Magelang, Central Java, Muh Damil Ahmad Yani, said on
Wednesday the emergency response period for victims of secondary threats of Mount Merapi scheduled to end on January 5, 2011 had been extended until January 19, 2011.
He said until now cold lava flooding was still a threat on people especially those living along the upper reaches of Mount Merapi.
He said the BNPB had decided to extend the emergency period in Central Java and Yogyakarta. He said the threat of volcanic mud flow would continue until the end of the rainy season.
"According to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency rain would still fall in January," he said.
The flood of volcanic materials from Mount Merapi triggered by rain blocked the main road between Yogyakarta and Magelang on Monday night causing the road to be closed for 18 hours disrupting the economy as well as social activities of the people. The road had been narrowed from four to two lanes until Wednesday.
Mount Merapi erupted last October leaving more than one hundred people dead. (*)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
