1.5m still living in tents, barracks

1.5m still living in tents, barracks

Nearly 1.5 million people made homeless by last year's tsunami
are still living in tents, barrack blocks and other temporary
shelters, a British aid organization said on Wednesday.

In Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India -- the countries hardest hit
by the killer waves -- land rights issues, a shortage of
construction materials and government indecision initially slowed
efforts to get survivors out of emergency shelters.

Roads and ports were also swept away by the Dec. 26 tsunami,
making it hard to get to some of the most devastated areas, Oxfam
International said in a year-end report on recovery efforts.

As result, only 20 percent of the 1.8 million people displaced
by the waves are in permanent housing, it said. While most of the
others are staying with host families, tens of thousands still
live in tent camps.

"The emergency response was rightly commended for helping to
save and improve thousands of lives," Jeremy Hobbs, director of
Oxfam International, said in the report. "But the rebuilding of
communities will take much longer."

The tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean left at least
216,000 people dead or missing in 12 countries -- the majority in
Indonesia's Aceh province.

Foreign governments and private donors pledged more than US$7
billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation, and thousands of
international aid workers poured into the region to help.

While they succeeded in setting up emergency shelters quickly,
saving thousands of lives, many did not have the experience or
expertise to carry out mass projects to construct homes, Oxfam
said.

Some of the things that stalled efforts to get people out of
tents, barracks and the homes of family and friends were
unavoidable, Oxfam said, noting that land in Aceh that once
housed 120,000 people was permanently submerged under the water.

Communities also needed to provide input about the types of
houses they wanted.

But other delays should have been avoided, the group said in
its report, noting that governments were slow to allocate new and
appropriate land for rebuilding and there was often little
clarity over coastal buffer zones.

And survivors should have been told early on how long it would
take to get them into permanent homes, Oxfam said.

The agency said that by the year's end, 18,149 of the minimum
80,000 permanent shelters needed in Indonesia will be completed.
-- AP