The socio-economic impact of relocation policy to the communities affected by the mount sinabung eruption: a preliminary study

Abstract

Mount Sinabung has long been dormant. Since 2010, the great giant has woken up from the big sleep and has periodically been erupting ever since. The series of eruption resulted in catastrophic damage to many of the surrounding area, resulted in inhabitable villages. Many of the relocated inhabitants returned to their home village for one or more reasons while some others never moved at all. This indicated that there are some problems in the relocation policy. As a part of the research project ‘The Socio-Economic Impact of Relocation Policy to the Communities Affected by Mount Sinabung Eruption’, this study aims to explore the underlying factors of the returning relocated inhabitants from the relocation area to their home village and those who chose to stay in the andger area. The results demonstrated that the loss of source of income and the lack of alternative livelihood strategy are the main reasons to leave the relocation area. The secondary reason is the difficult access to children’s education and the problematic policy. From the results we learned that housing quality and the supporting facility are not the only factor that needs to be considered in the relocation plan.