Oxfam is providing clean drinking water and tarpaulin shelter sheets to 5,000 survivors as a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, the second within a week, hit Lombok Island in Indonesia.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency put the death toll at 91 with over 200 injured. 600,000 people are affected in total, with up to 80% of the population displaced in four out of the five districts of Lombak (Northern, Western, Eastern and Central Lombak). Many people are still reported buried due to landslides in the hills and the rubble of thousands of homes and buildings that have collapsed following the main earthquake and multiple aftershocks.
Over 20,000 people are in temporary shelters while thousands more are under open skies in need of drinking water, food, medical supplies, and clothes. Clean drinking water is scarce due to the extremely dry weather conditions leading up the disaster.
Following the first 6.5 magnitude earthquake last week, Oxfam dispatched a mobile water treatment plant, 1,500 tarpaulins for shelter, and clothing material, and set up an emergency relief information center to support the work of the local humanitarian partners. Oxfam will now intensify its aid delivery efforts immediately.
While all Oxfam and partner staff on Lombok are safe, many project sites had been hit hard by the quakes halting the regular operations. However, they continue to provide emergency aid to those affected by the latest quake.
