Indonesian province still faces huge post-disaster challenges
Like many others, he was left with nothing but the clothes on his back. The 40-year-old fisherman, however, quickly pulled himself together and began to rebuild his life, returning to the sea only a couple months after the multiple disaster, Kyodo News reports.
With some carpentry materials donated to fisherman by a media conglomerate, Syamsu and his neighbors in West Mamboro, a subdistrict in the Central Sulawesi provincial capital of Palu, returned home to their houses flattened by the giant temblor and tsunamis.
Building his wooden house little by little, depending on money earned from fishing, the completed structure stood on his land a month later. He enjoys his life now -- working again at sea, drying the fish he nets and selling them to t
There is a problem, however.
Syamsu's house is located inside the red zone, tentatively designated by the local government, following months of surveys by some ministries and institutions, as well as the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Building inside the zone is prohibited.
Fisherfolk like Syamsu «insist on living where their previous houses stood...in the red zone, where (permanent) houses can no longer be built,» Central Sulawesi Gov. Longki Djanggola lamented in an interview.
While the problem has created headaches for local authorities, it impossible for them to force fishermen to live away from the sea, he added.
Temporary houses provided by the government are located on a higher, hilly ground, about 4 kilometers from the coast, which many fisherfolk consider too far away.
«We need to be close to the sea because we use seawater to wash and dry our fish. Cleaning them with freshwater decreases their quality,» he said.
