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Dead fish is seen in mud in an earthquake-ravaged village in Indonesia - Source: Reuters -
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Health workers fanned out across Padang to douse the Indonesian
city with disinfectant over concerns about disease outbreaks six
days after a deadly earthquake rattled Sumatra.
The rescue mission in Padang, a port city of 900,000, and in
surrounding hills devastated by landslides has now turned to a huge
relief effort to help thousands who have lost their
homes.
While aid has poured into the area, the scale of the disaster,
heavy rains and damage to roads has meant that some relief supplies
have built up at various points, triggering anger on the
ground.
"I have seen reports on TV of boxes piling up at the airport and
not making it to victims. That's not fair. Those are the
secondary items, not the priority items like food and water," said
Gamawan Fauzi, the governor of West Sumatra.
On Monday, Reuters correspondents in a number of different areas
were told by villagers that little if any aid had arrived.
"Yesterday all I had to eat was a packet of instant noodles. All of
us are hungry. We hear on the radio very nice words that aid is
pouring in, but where is it?," asked Erol, a resident with a
10-day-old infant in Pasa Dama, a village outside Padang.
Governor Fauzi denied that any of the aid supplies were falling
into the wrong hands.
"The receipt of aid is signed off by the head of each sub-district.
So we know what they have received. I think the risk of corruption
is small, but if anyone is caught doing that they must punished,"
added Fauzi.
The governor said rotting bodies were a big hazard to health now and experts were monitoring for cases of cholera and tetanus.
"We have sent out of a lot of disinfectant and we will spray in
Padang today," he said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono criticised on Monday evening
local officials in the quake-hit area for not focusing enough on
emergency needs and too much on reconstruction needs.
"What I want to know is what is being done for emergency steps,
such as food supply, electricity supply, fuel supply and other
aspects," Yudhoyono said before a cabinet meeting.
The president also called for an Aceh-style reconstruction.
"In my view I think we could implement what has been done in Aceh,
Nias and Yogykarta," he added.
The rebuilding of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra after the
2004 tsunami has largely been held up as success, while massive
rehabilitation also took place on the island of Nias, also in
Sumatra, and in the city of Yogyakarta in Java after quakes.
Yudhoyono thanked fellow Muslim nation Saudi Arabia for donating
$US50 million to the recovery effort.
Aid from at least 16 nations and international bodies has
arrived since last week, although foreign search and rescue teams
are now leaving.
Indonesia's official death toll from the quake is 625 dead and 295
missing, but Indonesia's health minister has said the toll could
reach as high as 3,000.
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