The West Java Social Service has established 14 public kitchens in the 14 sub-districts affected by the November 21, 2022, earthquake in the province’s Cianjur district.
Officials said that one public kitchen can supply 70 thousand meal packs per day to refugees.
“We have established 14 public kitchens in 14 sub-districts,” head of the West Java Social Service, Dodo Suhendar, informed in Bandung city, West Java, on Tuesday.
He said that currently, the condition of the Cianjur earthquake’s victims is improving, although the dynamics on the field have indicated a number of phenomena, including the hoarding of aid.
Emergency response units (Taganas) from various regions of Indonesia have been helping with the social work since two weeks ago, Suhendar noted. He further said that the food supply is abundant.
“West Nusa Tenggara sent Taliwang chicken and West Sumatra also sent three tons of rendang,” he added.
However, Suhendar said that the refugee issue still needs better management. He informed that there are residents who have not received assistance even though it has been already sent.
“We have enough donations, but some parties hoard the aid, this is dynamic,” he remarked.
He said there were some people who had refused to reside in the localized evacuation tents and chose to set up independent tents in rice fields or gardens.
“They also refused to be given assistance,” he noted.
Suhendar informed there were also 450 refugees who chose to evacuate from the Cugenang area to Jamali.
“Unfortunately, there were some people pretending to be refugees to get social assistance,” he said.
The West Java Social Service has also deployed a team to provide psychosocial services and reduce the refugees’ trauma. In addition, the service has asked people to not hoard their donations.
“No one should hoard, this will create false information regarding the uneven distribution of social assistance,” he added.
The 5.6-magnitude earthquake that rattled Cianjur district, West Java, at 1:21 p.m. local time on November 21 was centered 10 kilometers (km) southwest of the district at a depth of 10 km. It did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami.
As of December 3, it had caused 331 deaths and left 8 people missing and 593 seriously injured. Meanwhile, 59 people were undergoing treatment at Cianjur Hospital. The quake caused 114,683 people to flee their homes to evacuation posts
Source: Antara News