Sigi's sunday market reopened after being destroyed earthquake

Sigi, C Sulawesi (ANTARA) - The residents of Bulubete Village in Dolo Selatan Subdistrict, Sigi District, Central Sulawesi Province, who severely suffered from the impact of a deadly earthquake on Sept 28, 2018, now can sale and purchase  goods and staple food again at their Sunday Market.

Andi Ilham, assistant for administration affairs at the Sigi District Government, officially announced the resumption of this traditional market on Sunday.

The resumption of this market activities is expected to boost the local people's economy through distribution of goods and business activities, he said.

The Sunday Market is not just visited by Bulubete villagers for trading goods and staple food but also those from other villages, such as Walatana, Rogo, Bangga, and Baluase.

Sigi District is one of the areas in Central Sulawesi which was severely hit by the 7.4-magnitude earthquake and tsunami. The other disaster areas were also located in the city of Palu and the districts of Donggala and Parigi Moutong.

The Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami claimed 2,102 lives, injured 4,612, and rendered 680 others missing. A total of 68,451 homes were seriously damaged, and 78,994 people were displaced.

Due to a large number of rotting corpses, the authorities and humanitarian workers decided to bury them in mass graves.



Meanwhile, material losses inflicted by the twin deadly disasters were estimated to reach Rp15.29 trillion.

The provincial capital of Palu took the brunt of the disaster, with material damage and losses recorded at Rp7.6 trillion, or 50 percent of the total estimate, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

The material damage and losses in Sigi district were recorded at Rp4.9 trillion, or 32.1 percent, Donggala district at Rp2.1 trillion, or 13.8 percent, and Parigi Moutong district at Rp631 billion, or 4.1 percent.

The material damage in the four affected areas reached an estimated Rp13.27 trillion, while the material losses reached approximately Rp2.02 trillion, the agency revealed in October 2018.