Government dispatches relief supplies to Wasior

Jakarta -The central government has dispatched a total of 42 tons of relief supplies to Wasior, West Papua, where a flash flood had swept hundreds of people away from their houses and left close to 150 others dead as of Sunday, officials have said. “We`ve already dispatched 42 tons of emergency relief supplies to Wasior. The supplies consist of logistical items and medicines,” B. Sawaki, head of Manokawari disaster command post and West Papua governor expert staff, told the press at Manokwari on Saturday night.Sawaki added that 13 tons of the total 42 tons of relief supplies were from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) whereas the other 29 tons from the Presidential Office in Jakarta. “Those from the President`s were actually 31 tons, but we have earmarked 2 tons for refugees from Wasior in Manokwari,” Sawaki said.

An earlier report said the BNPB supplies consisted of 60 units of platoon tents, 80 units of family tents, 200 rolling tents, 60 units` emergency beds, 500 packages of clothes, 100 pieces of mats, 2,250 ready-for-consumption foods and 2,250 kg of medicines.

He said the dispatch operations for the relief supplies to the affected areas in Wasior so far had been smooth. “We sent the supplies by the sea, using ships, and there have been no problems reported,” said Sawaki, adding that the dispatches had been rather slow because it took eight hours for each shipment to get to Wasior.

As of Sunday, an official count of victims of the flash flood that hit Wasior last Monday shows 148 people have been killed and hundreds of others have gone missing and sustained injuries. Antara/VOI