INDONESIA - With the time of reconstruction of the quake-devastated province of West Sumatra drawing near, the National Disaster Management Board is lacking data on houses damaged by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake which struck on Sept. 30.

Head of the Board, Syamsul Maarif, said Monday the government had so far registered 40 percent of houses affected by the quake, mostly in the provincial capital of Padang and Padang Pariaman regency, two areas that were hardest hit by the disaster.

"Data on damaged houses in Padang and Padang Pariaman is nearing completion, but we have not finished collection of required data in other regencies," Syamsul was quoted by Antara.

The data needed to start the reconstruction process includes identity and signatures of house owners and pictures of their houses.

Syamsul called on community leaders to help the data collection, which will in turn speed up the reconstruction process.