JAKARTA, Oct 3 (AlertNet) Â? As aid began pouring into IndonesiaÂ?s quake-hit West Sumatra on Saturday, the United Nations said the clock was ticking to restore essential public services including water and sanitation before the heaviest part of the rainy season.
Three days after the disaster leveled thousands of buildings in the port city of Padang and surrounding areas, killing hundreds, relief workers were scrambling to deliver shelter, food, medical care and heavy equipment for search and rescue.
But El-mostafa Benlamlih, the U.N. resident coordinator in Indonesia, told AlertNet that fixing shattered infrastructure was equally pressing.
Â?The rainy season is starting and if we donÂ?t take action in terms of re-establishing those public utilities then water and sanitation will pose a problem later,Â? he said by telephone.
There is also a need for counselling traumatised survivors in densely populated Padang and surrounding areas, he said.
TV footage from Pariaman, closer to the quake's epicentre, showed a whole hillside where several villages were located had collapsed, leaving just barren red earth and the odd fallen tree.
Many of the displaced have been staying in mosques, Benlamlih said. Temporary shelters have been set up and the U.N. and international agencies have been distributing non-food relief items, but more is needed.
Fuel and petrol are in critically short supply, he said, since many petrol stations have been damaged. Aid agencies worry that fuel shortages as well as a lack of mobile phone coverage and power will seriously hamper aid efforts in coming days.
Electricity and communications lines are still down and access via damaged roads remains limited in the quake zone, Benlamlih said.
Persistent rain in some areas has compounded the problems, triggering mudslides.
The focus now is now mostly on search and rescue and the immediate survival needs of people without shelter and those who are injured, Benlamlih said.
Rescue teams from the region and around the world are racing to find people trapped under the rubble , believed to number around 4,000 in Padang and surrounding areas.
The death toll from the 7.6 magnitude earthquake stands at around 800, with around 2,600 injured, according to Benlamlih.
But aid agency Caritas Australia said Parmian, a town of 80,000 closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, was totally destroyed and that the death toll could be higher.
Round-the-clock coverage from local television stations showed rescuers using heavy machinery to move rubble or carrying body bags. Footage also showed villagers fleeing landslides.
In Padang, a hospital has been partially damaged and aid workers say the injured are being treated outside in tents.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was sending in kidney specialists to treat people suffering from crush syndrome, a condition in which muscle tissue damaged by severe internal injury may release massive quantities of toxins into the bloodstream and lead to kidney failure.
Left untreated, crush syndrome can be fatal, MSF said.
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