Arya News - A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 48 people in Flores in August. Two months later, conditions in evacuation shelters remain poor, with limited access to food, clothing, sanitation, health care and essential infrastructure including schools, according to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI).
JAKARTA – Civil society groups have renewed concerns over the slow post-disaster response in earthquake-hit Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), as residents issue a legal notice accusing President Prabowo Subianto’s administration of negligence.
A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 48 people in Flores in August. Two months later, conditions in evacuation shelters remain poor, with limited access to food, clothing, sanitation, health care and essential infrastructure including schools, according to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI).
“We see this as very urgent and a form of humanitarian crisis and a form of state negligence,” WALHI legal manager Christine Constanta told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
She pointed to the 108 people who died in evacuation shelters in late September. Meanwhile, not all displaced residents had been accommodated properly, forcing some of them to build around 450 makeshift tents across Ende, one of the affected regencies.
Christine said these self-built shelters were not included in the National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BNPB) evacuee data, leaving their occupants without adequate assistance to this date.
BNPB’s NTT earthquake response dashboard accessed on Wednesday listed around 28,000 displaced residents in the province, mostly sheltered in East Manggarai, Manggarai and Sikka, but none in Ende.
BNPB previously clarified that the reported deaths mostly occurred among elderly residents because of “preexisting chronic illnesses” such as strokes and diabetes. The agency said health authorities have provided maximum health care.
The situation prompted Walhi to join six NTT residents in issuing legal notices on Monday, addressing the President, the BNPB head, several ministers overseeing health, social affairs, women and children and public works, as well as Governor Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena.
They said the government has been “slow and unprepared” in their response and urged them to immediately rebuild infrastructure and restore the environment to address water shortages and soil damage in Flores villages.
“This legal notice is a reminder to the government to fulfill its responsibilities,” Christine of Walhi said, adding that they gave the government 60 days to improve post-disaster response and fulfill evacuees’ rights, or else they would sue the government for negligence.
“We hope the state will do its job in disaster response without being sued,” she said.
WALHI and the residents also raised concerns over the protection of vulnerable groups in Flores, including children, women and older people, following reports of the rape of a 15-year-old girl at an evacuation shelter in Sikka regency in September. Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Arifatul Choiri Fauzi at the time said the ministry had responded to the report and ensured the girl received assistance and was in a safe environment.
Amnesty International Indonesia echoed the concerns, with spokesperson Haeril Halim saying the prolonged displacement of residents is a pressing concern requiring immediate government attention, supporting the residents’ decision to formally demand state accountability.
“Residents have the right to protest against the state’s slow and ineffective emergency response, especially with the irony that many lives have been lost in the very place where they should be fully protected by the state,” he said on Wednesday.
The Government Communications Agency (Bakom) and the BNPB did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The government is currently facing two ongoing citizen lawsuits over its slow response in handling wildfires in West Kalimantan and sluggish post-flood recovery in three provinces in Sumatra.