PADANG, Indonesia: Armen Tasar sits on the rail tracks with his two children and nieces. Since the earthquake on Sept 30, the tracks have become their home.
- They eat and sleep there. They are not the only ones. In fact, many from Kampung Baru at Simpang Aru, about 5km from Padang town, sleep on the tracks these days.
- They are fearful that what remains of their homes will come crashing down if there is another quake and they won’t have time to run.
- “So it’s safer to sleep on the tracks,” said Armen, who put up a makeshift cover over the tracks to shield the children from sun and rain.
- There are no trains running as the tracks too have been damaged by the 7.6 earthquake.
- In the outskirts of Padang, aid distribution has been slow.
- Since the quake, Armen and his villagers have received only few kilo of rice, five packets of instant mee, two tins of sardine, two bottles of water and one packet of milk and Milo. “It is just enough for one meal for a family,” said Armen.
- But villagers in Kampong Baru Arti 01 further down are even less fortunate. They queued up for two hours and came away with a mug of rice, two packets of Indomie and one glass of water for each family!
- Yosi Noprit, one of the villager said, most of them here had sold vegetables but when the market was destroyed they have nowhere to sell and have no money coming in.
- Supplies are coming, mostly from the hillside areas not ravaged in the earthquake. But prices are high.
- “Chilli used to cost 20,000 rupiah (RM7.25) a kg but now it’s 70,000 rupiah (RM25.29). Onion which was 10,000 rupiah (RM3.62) per kg is now 50,000 rupiah (RM18.15),” said Raflizah; another villager.
- Her three kids have rashes all over their body and faces as they have been bathing in the Batang Berkali River. Since the water supply was cut after the quake, people are using the river to bathe, wash their clothes, bikes and even to defecate.
- Yosi and her neighbours have been using water from the shallow well behind for drinking but it is “murky, muddy and not clean. The kids have been vomiting and getting diarrhoea.”
- A kilometre away, the Indonesian Water Department has set up camp by the Batang Berkali River and is giving clean drinking water to those who come with containers.
- Kelana and 20 others from the Water Department in Jakarta have come down to Padang and have been despatched to various parts of the quake-stricken areas to supply clean drinking water for free.
- He added that there would soon be mobile water trucks going around.
- Because of the hectic schedule, Kelana sleeps in the water truck parked by the river and supplies clean water from 6am to 10pm. And in solidarity with the quake victims, he too bathes in Batang Berkali River and uses it as his toilet.
- “The clean water is only for drinking. I can’t use it to bathe,” he said.
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