The Australian government has set aide 15 million Australian dollars for a program to support West Sumatra’s rehabilitation and reconstruction following the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that hit the province in September 30, 2009.

Australian Ambassador Bill Farmer expressed his country’s commitment to helping West Sumatra recover from the earthquake’s devastating impact when visiting the region here on Tuesday.

Farmer visited West Sumatra to attend the launching of a campaign to educate the local population in “earthquake-resistant house building” in cooperation with the Indonesian government.

The envoy said the important point in implementing the program was to show the local government and people how to construct earthquake-resistant houses.

Some 70 percent of homes and public facilities had collapsed or were severely damaged by the September 2009 earthquake in West Sumatra because their construction was not up to good standards, he said.

The 7.9 Richter scale earthquake which was followed by landslides hit several areas in West Sumatra on September 30, 2009, and caused damage to 249,833 houses and public property, 114,797 units of which were severely damaged.

Source : Antara