Palu struggling to recover

Still lots to be done: (Top) A motorist riding past ruins of buildings destroyed by the earthquake while (left) two women are chatting among tents at a temporary shelter in Palu. — AP

PALU: Six months after Palu was ripped apart by an earthquake, tsunami and liquefying soil that sucked neighbourhoods into the earth and killed thousands, a second crisis is looming as recovery efforts stumble and a city that feels ignored begs for humanitarian assistance.Thousands of people in this city on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island are still living in sweltering tent cities, while construction of new permanent homes has yet to start and almost a third of temporary housing is unoccupied after aid groups and authorities failed to connect the units to essential utilities.

President Joko Widodo, who is seeking a second term in elections this week, and his deputy promised that financial assistance to those whose homes were destroyed or whose loved ones were killed would be rapidly distributed. But not a cent has been paid out.