Posted on January 5, 2006

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One Year After Tsunami, Indonesia Accelerates Housing Effort

More than a year after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, thousands of families and individuals throughout the affected region still haven't been moved from temporary shelters to permanent housing, the Washington Post reports.

After building about 16,000 houses in 2005, Indonesia is moving forward with what some government officials are calling the largest post-disaster reconstruction effort in human history, with a goal of building 80,000 homes by the end of 2006 and a total of 120,000 by mid-2007. But even as the government pushes ahead with its plans, many of the houses built in 2005 remain unoccupied, more than 60,000 displaced Indonesians are still living in tents, and another 50,000 are being housed in barracks or other forms of temporary shelter.

"Until the last person moves out of the barracks into their own house, that last person will say that we are slow," said Kuntoro Mangusubroto, director of Indonesia's Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for the Aceh and Nias region, known by its Indonesian initials of BRR. In tacit acknowledgment of the fact that thousands of people will be without permanent housing until 2007, the International Red Cross, the United Nations, and the government of the BRR are building 20,000 transitional homes of galvanized steel. Officials hope to move most people out of tents by April.

At the same time, the increased pace of construction brings logistical challenges. Building more than a hundred thousand new homes will require nearly 14 million cubic meters of concrete, gravel, and wood, or roughly 1.7 million truckloads of material — a task greatly complicated by the loss of transportation infrastructure, including most of the ports, highways, and bridges in Aceh province. Moreover, many survivors refuse to be resettled in villages that have been relocated from the coast, choosing to rebuild close to their old fishing grounds rather than near the West Coast Highway, which the United States is spending $245 million to repair. "The road is unquestionably the economic backbone of Aceh," said William Frej, Indonesia director of the U.S. Agency for International Development. "I would suspect that many of the villages, when the road is completed, will be relocated much closer to the road."

For relief officials, one of the most difficult challenges is managing expectations. The destruction and devastating loss of life caused by the tsunami generated an outpouring of pledges from foreign governments, foundations, and individual donors, raising hopes among the 500,000 people who were displaced that their houses would be rebuilt quickly. "Total destruction is total destruction and it takes time to rebuild — and I'm not even referring to Katrina," said Scott Campbell, Aceh director for Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services. "I'm referring to hurricanes Ivan and Charley and others over a year old where people are still not in permanent houses. And this is [in] a country where there's loads of resources and infrastructure."

Nakashima, Ellen. “Expediting Homes for Tsunami Victims.” Washington Post 1/04/06.

Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Location(s): Indian Ocean, Indonesia, International

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