30,000 still homeless - one year after the disaster

Arvin sits leaning against a white exterior wall outside the barracks that is his home today. A few meters away, a fire bursts where one of the neighbors who best boils some tea water. On hold, children's laughter is heard from the camp's soccer field.

- We've been living here for a year now. The authorities say we can stay in another one, but many here are worried that it might be even longer, he says.

4,000 people live in this camp. Many of them, like Arvin from the Petobo community, are one of the worst hit by the earthquake. Here they live close together in barracks that are divided to create small homes. Each family has an area of ​​three times four meters.

The barracks are supposed to be temporary accommodation for two years. They have been set up by the Indonesian authorities in collaboration with various aid organizations, pending the construction of new permanent housing for Arvin and others affected.

- Me and everyone else here wants to move back to Petobo again. If we do not return, there is a risk that society will disappear. Ceases to exist, says Arvin.

The problem is that Petobo was one of the places that, in the context of the earthquake, was hit the worst by a geological phenomenon known as liquid equilibrium. This means that solid soil that contains a lot of water beforehand suddenly turns into clay. When that happened, houses, cars and people fell as the ground opened. The whole block disappeared in the mud.

Geologist Abdulah, who is a professor at the University of Palu, says that Petobo was one of a total of thirteen places subject to liquidation. Moving back to those areas again would be dangerous, according to him.

- We will never be able to prevent equilibrium, as long as we do not learn to prevent earthquakes first. For these are related. However, what we can do is make sure that we no longer live in places that were once subject to liquidation, because we know that the land there is unstable, says Abdulah.

Presley Tampubolon is the chief authority for the reconstruction in Palu. He says that 7,000 destroyed houses must be replaced and that finding new land for so many affected people and families is a difficult task at once.

Surveys have gone out to those affected to try and find out where people might think of moving, if a move back to the hometown becomes impossible.

- Before we put the shovel in the ground, we need to know who we are building and that people really want to live right there, says Presley Tampubolon.

In the camp, Arvin was joined by Alfin Ladjuni, also he homeless after the earthquake. Arvin and Alfin have lived for one year in the camp and the idea is that it will be a maximum of one more year.

- It feels like it will be longer than that, says Arvin.

Do you think the camp here will remain in a year, despite all plans?

- Yes, I'm afraid of it, says Alfin Ladjuni

Footnote : Like many other Indonesians, Arvin and geologist Abdulah have only first names.