New challenges in post-tsunami reconstruction
An army of workers rebuilds a cement plant once strewn with dead
bodies.
A giant tsunami wave |
A four-lane highway slowly takes shape along a coast shattered by
giant waves. Roof tiles on new houses and schools glint in the tropical
sun.
After the tsunami struck three years ago Wednesday, taking 230,000
lives in 12 Indian Ocean countries from East Africa to Indonesia, the
world pledged some US$13.6 billion (?9.5 billion) to house and feed
survivors and to rebuild devastated coasts.
Now the assistance is drying up and the recipients are facing the
challenge of standing up unaided.
The results of three years of reconstruction are visible along the
coast of Indonesia's Aceh province, the region hit hardest by the Dec.
26 disaster.
Some of those involved are calling it a model of post-disaster
reconstruction. "The developments on the ground are very pleasing," said
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of the government reconstruction agency.
"I would say we are around 80 per cent complete." Some fear a hard
landing when major reconstruction work comes to an end around mid-2008.
The aid that has built roads, schools and more than 100,000 homes has
also powered local economies. Aid agencies hired thousands of
construction workers, rented homes and offices, employed drivers and
translators and patronized restaurants and hotels.
Satellite image of the tsunami hitting Kalutara |
The massive injection of money boosted the largely agriculture-based
economy in Aceh, home to 4.2 million people. Cars and motorcycles jam
the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. Hotels, cafes and shops seem to be
going up on every corner. "This is dangerous, it is like a bubble," said
Zainul Arifin, the head of Aceh's investment board.
Like many, he earned thousands of U.S. dollars renting his house to a
Western aid agency. "When the United Nations and the aid groups leave,
we have to be ready with new livelihoods." None of that diminishes the
progress made to date.More than US$2 billion has been spent in Thailand
to rebuild the southern coast, where beach resorts were badly damaged
and 8,000 people died.
Almost all the work is complete, said Bundit Theveethivarak, director
of disaster mitigation at the Interior Ministry.
In Sri Lanka, the second hardest-hit country, "the picture is pretty
good," said David Evans, a U.N. official there. Some reconstruction has
been hampered by fighting between the government and the LTTE. Indonesia
has had an added benefit: The tsunami jolted the government and a rebel
movement in Aceh into signing a peace after decades of war that killed
15,000 people.
By April 2009, when the reconstruction agency's mandate officially
ends, Indonesia expects to have spent US$8 billion in Aceh, US$1.9
billion more than the estimated cost of repairs. The extra funds will
enable the province to "build back better," according to the
reconstruction agency.
For example, the four-lane highway, funded mainly by the U.S.
government, is replacing a two-lane coastal road that in some places was
completely washed away. In central Banda Aceh, workers are laying wide
sidewalks, something rarely seen elsewhere in Indonesia. With so much
money sloshing around, some was wasted.
About 20 percent of the new homes in some areas are empty. People who
did not need homes gladly accepted them when they were offered for free.
Complaints of poor quality abound, and some homes still do not have
plumbing and electricity.
Aid agencies and the Government acknowledge the problems, saying that
with hundreds of thousands left homeless after the tsunami, they were
under intense pressure to build as many homes as they could, and do so
quickly.
Mangkusubroto said next year would be "about filling in the gaps" in
housing. There have been kickbacks and bid-rigging, but the widespread
corruption many feared was held in check by strict auditing, officials
and aid workers said.
With aid agencies winding down operations or already gone, attention
is shifting to attracting private investment to create jobs. But so far
only one major foreign company, France-based Lafarge SA, is making a
significant investment, spending US$90 million to rebuild the seaside
cement factory in Lhoknga, just outside Banda Aceh.
About 200 local workers, supervised by Chinese engineers, are pulling
out what cannot be fixed and rebuilding the rest.
The facility, sandwiched between a surf-lashed beach and limestone
cliffs, is also getting a new 32-megawatt power plant. An Irish firm
announced a plan last year to turn the island of Sabang off northern
Aceh into a shipping hub, but squabbling among local politicians has
delayed the project, according to Sabang officials.
The island sits at the entrance to the Malacca Strait, a strategic
waterway through which many of the world's container ships pass.
The plan envisions ships unloading their wares onto smaller boats at
Sabang for regional distribution, a role played by Singapore today.
The concerns for potential investors mirror those throughout
Indonesia: an absence of clear laws, creaky infrastructure, uncertainty
over land ownership and copious red tape.
"Investors are sniffing around, which is a good sign, but there's
some way to go yet," said David Lawrence, the head of a World Bank
agency tasked with helping the province attracting investment.
AP
|