ADB $3 Million Grant to Help Victims of Indonesia's Volcano Eruption

Asian Development Bank (ADB) , 10 December 2010

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending $3 million to assist in aid efforts in the wake of the Mount Merapi volcano eruptions, which destroyed homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Central Java province and Yogyakarta Special region in October and November 2010.

ADB's assistance will be used to build temporary shelter, normalization of public facilities (i.e. schools, health care, water and sanitation) and setting up a cash for work scheme for the refugees to clear debris.

More than 300 people were killed and over 400,000 people were forced to flee their homes because of the eruption, according to the Indonesian Agency for Disaster Management. Many evacuees have left the evacuation points to return home after the government downgraded the alert level of the volcano in early December, more than five weeks since it began erupting. The government warned, however, that there was still a danger of volcanic mud flooding homes and properties.

"There are still thousands of families who cannot return to their villages because they were destroyed by the volcanic eruption," said ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda. "ADB will do whatever it can to support the government's efforts to provide them with temporary shelters and other essentials they need."

The $3 million grant is being provided under ADB's emergency facility, the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, which provides quick-disbursing grants to help restore essential life-saving services following disasters.

ADB is coordinating its aid efforts with the Government of Indonesia, the United Nations and other development partners.

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