Water treatment plants and power generators from the German aid organisation I.S.A.R. Germany arrived in the disaster area on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Saturday. Part of the I.S.A.R. team and its cooperation partner BRH Bundesverband Rettungshunde was also on board a US Air Force transport plane that had been given permission to land at the badly damaged airport in Palu. Due to the chaotic conditions in the region, which had been hit by several earthquakes and a tsunami, the aid mission that had been underway since Wednesday had been delayed.
The German aid workers will now support the local emergency services, particularly in the production of drinking water and electricity, which is sorely lacking. The two drinking water treatment plants they brought with them can produce around six thousand litres of clean water every day. Some of the generators brought along will remain on site as donations.
The 17 cubic metres of cargo weighing four tonnes also contains everything needed to set up a base camp on site for the mission. It is the policy of I.S.A.R. Germany and BRH to be completely self-sufficient in the areas of operation so as not to diminish the scarce remaining resources there. For this reason, the other rescue workers who have been in Indonesia since Thursday will only now fly on to Central Sulawesi.
A joint advance team from I.S.A.R Germany and BRH had already gained an overview of the situation in Palu on Thursday. Due to the extreme logistical problems, including at the airport, permission for the cargo plane chartered by the German aid teams to land was withdrawn at short notice. The cargo was then transferred to a US Air Force transport aircraft provided by USAID on the neighbouring island of Borneo.
I.S.A.R. Germany and BRH Bundesverband Rettungshunde have sent a total of 14 rescue workers to Indonesia. They are from North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Berlin, Erfurt, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg.
