The Mount Sinabung eruption needs a different system of disaster mitigation efforts because its volcanic activity is expected to continue for the next five years.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Social Affairs Ministry has allocated Rp15 billion to help those affected by the eruption of Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra.

"This is only from the Social Affairs Ministry. It will cover the kitchenware and living costs of 2,053 families, who are victims of the Sinabung eruption" Margowiyono, the ministrys director of social protection for disaster victims, said here on Wednesday.

President Joko Widodo has ordered for the efforts to assist Sinabung refugees to be expedited by giving them permanent houses. So far, 370 houses have been built for them.

The ministry has provided Rp2.5 billion to relocate 370 families to these permanent resettlements, particularly to cover modest kitchenware and living costs for three months.

Of the total 2,053 families, 1,683 have to remain in refugee camps to wait for the construction of more houses to be completed.

The Mount Sinabung eruption needs a different system of disaster mitigation efforts because its volcanic activity is expected to continue for the next five years.

The ministry has allocated Rp2 million to provide kitchenware to every household and Rp10,000 per person to cover their daily living costs for three months.

Located in Karo district in North Sumatra province, Mount Sinabung had been inactive for 400 years. Since coming back to life in 2010, it has been erupting sporadically.

Thousands of villagers have been displaced since its eruption in August 2010, in September and November 2013, in January, February and October 2014, and as recently as in June 2015.

More than 30,000 people across 34 villages were displaced from September 2013 to February 2014, as a result of the eruption of the 2,600-meter-high mount.

Mount Sinabung has been erupting intermittently, spewing massive clouds of superheated gas and ash as high as 7,000 meters into the sky and down its slopes in deadly pyroclastic flows.

On June 2 this year, authorities raised the alert status of the volcano to the highest level.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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