During our visit to North Lombok, we went on a field visit to a small ‘sub village’ called Gol, near Medana in the Tanjung sub  district.

About a year ago, Gol village suffered badly during a relatively small (M5.1) earthquake. 160 houses were completely destroyed by the ground shaking, which was described as mostly a single jolt that was all over in about 5 seconds. A total of about 6000 other houses were destroyed in the surrounding district.

Many private houses in Indonesia are built by the owners, without strict oversight or adherence to regulations. The destructive impact of the quake was likely due to poor house construction, as well as the  soft  river sediments underlying the village, which would have amplified the groundshaking.

The Indonesian government gives some support to households for the materials needed to rebuild their houses, but this will not cover the labour costs. During our visit we watched rebuilding being carried out by a large group of the villagers collaborating together. Bamboo  makes excellent lightweight but strong scaffolding poles.

Here you can see a new house that has been built on the old (still cracked) concrete pad, with the broken remains of the original house still piled up to the side.

Life seems almost back to normal in Gol,  just over a year after the disaster.