Bali Tourism News

Bali plans fund to improve poor housing

October 27th, 2008

Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The Bali Administration will allocate Rp 3.5 billion (US$368,421) out of the province’s annual budget to renovate houses of the island’s poorest residents, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said Saturday.

The fund will be taken from the province’s annual budget next year.

The aim of the program is to improve low-income families’ housing conditions throughout the island.

“It is so the poor can live in proper living quarters like the ones we have here,”Pastika told reporters during the administration’s second public hearing at the provincial legislative compound.

It is the second time that Pastika has held a public meeting, known as an open house, with the island’s residents, intellectuals and informal leaders. He uses the monthly unscripted meetings to gain unfiltered opinions directly from the public.

According to early calculations by the public works agency, he said, the fund would be sufficient to finance the renovation of 300 houses. Up to Rp 10 million will be allocated to renovate each house.

Officials are currently conducting a survey to identify the recipients of the fund, Pastika added.

“We are still waiting for the survey’s result to determine how much will be given to each household.”

The local administration will also launch a major public health program early next year, Pastika said. The initiative will target 6,000 patients from 500 out of 700 villages throughout the island. The initiative will include free medical checkups and treatment.

“I have ordered officials from the public health agency to improve their records on who deserves the free medication,”Pastika said.

Pastika said the health initiative would also include free of charge cataract surgery.

“We estimate that around 1,000 people will have the eye surgery.”

Under the program, the administration will renovate existing health centers in lower-income regions, Pastika said. The administration plans to renovate three community healthcare centers in Gerokgak district in Buleleng regency, Kintamani district in Bangli regency and Kubu district in Karangasem regency.

According to the Bali Statistics Agency, there were at least 147,044 low-income households on the resort island in 2006, with most residing in Karangasem, Buleleng and Bangli.

“We need to improve health facilities so people with serious diseases have access to better treatment and medication.”

Around Rp 2 million will be allocated from the 2009 provincial budget for the program, Pastika said.

The administration will ask other parties, such as public health NGOs, to participate in the program, local administration spokesman Nyoman Puasha Aryana told The Jakarta Post.

“We will also ask the other parties such as NGOs and residents to help improve their daily health management system through this program.”

Komang Gede, a public health activist from Karangasem who attended the hearing, however, criticized the plan, saying it was likely to fail.

“I doubt the effectiveness of this program as there will be at least 1,000 people coming to a single place at once,”he told the Post.

“It will be just another crowded mass medication program. So how do you expect that these people will receive proper medication and medical diagnosis through this kind of program?”

Source: The Jakarta Post

Entry Filed under: Bali Tourism News