AHA Centre Hands Over 75 Permanent Housing Units to Community Devastated by 2018 Disaster in Central Sulawesi

In a virtual meeting are AHA Centre Executive Director Adelina Kamal and Palu City Mayor Hidayat

JAKARTA 16 April 2020 — In a virtual event, the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) handed over 75 units of permanent houses as part of the ASEAN Village project in the City of Palu in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. 

The Philippines, along with Brunei Darussalam and Australia, supported the construction of the permanent houses being implemented by the AHA Centre in coordination with Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana, the National Disaster Management Authority of Indonesia.

The Philippines donated USD 300,000 (PHP 15,235,650.00) in October 2018  following the triple disasters in Central Sulawesi in September 2018 when a 7.4 magnitude earthquake triggered cascading events including a near-field tsunami, major liquefaction and landslides. The main objective of the project is to provide effective support to the priorities identified by the local government authorities in the recovery phase, one of which is permanent housing for the affected communities of Palu City. 

In their remarks, AHA Centre Executive Director Adelina Kamal and Palu City Mayor Hidayat expressed their appreciation to the support of the Philippines which was done at a time when the country was just starting to recover from the devastation of Typhoon Mangkut. This, they underscored, was a strong manifestation of the Philippines’ commitment to ASEAN solidarity in the wake of natural disasters.

The 75 units of permanent houses, complete with two bedrooms and a latrine, have been fully built along with public facilities, such as a community street, drainage system, access to clean water and electricity. The construction will continue until the end of 2020 to build an additional 25 permanent houses. It is expected that the launch ceremony of the ASEAN Village will be done at a later stage when the coronavirus pandemic has been contained.

The AHA Centre is an inter-governmental organization based in Jakarta and established by ten ASEAN Member States on 17 November 2011 to facilitate cooperation and coordination among ASEAN Member States, the United Nations and international organizations in  promoting regional collaboration in disaster management. The full handover video may be accessed via the AHA Centre’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ahacentre/videos. END

Representatives from the AHA Centre and Palu City Government during its virtual event.

For more information, visit http://www.jakartapm.dfa.gov.ph/ or https://www.facebook.com/PHMissionJakarta.