Aceh's west coast waits for attention
Aceh's west coast waits for attention
Antara, Banda Aceh
Almost a year after the tsunami devastated coastal Aceh on Dec.
26 last year, five regencies on the province's west coast are
still isolated due to poor transportation links.
The main Banda Aceh-Meulaboh route is still badly damaged with
many bridges destroyed.
"People are suffering as it's not only hard for them reach
Banda Aceh, the province's capital city, but many basic
necessities are hard to find in the market due to the
transportation problems," Aceh Jaya Regent Zulfian Ahmad
explained.
He said that for people living on the west coast, the only way
to reach Banda Aceh was by air or by sea.
Of the five regencies -- West Aceh, Aceh Jaya, Nagan Raya,
South Aceh and Southwest Aceh, he said that only Aceh Jaya had
been badly hit by the disaster, while the other four had not been
so badly affected.
But the absence of surface transportation has also left the
four suffering as a result of the tidal wave, which killed over
126,000 people and left more than 400,000 homeless.
Zulfian, who lost his wife and two children in the disaster,
said that the tsunami had only left one of Aceh Jaya's six
districts relatively intact, while the other five had been
devastated.
Many thousands of the regency's people were still homeless,
with at least 12,000 new houses required.
After the tsunami, many survivors left the regency to live in
shelters or even moved to other regencies like Aceh Besar and
Banda Aceh, although it took them three days to walk there.
Meanwhile, Aceh Barat regent Nasruddin said the west coast had
been left out of the reconstruction plans compared to other
regencies in the province, and blamed this on poor
transportation.
He said the transportation difficulties had resulted in many
non-governmental organizations not being able to reach the
isolated west coast areas. Access problems had also caused rising
food prices.
"The sad thing is, some victims have returned to their
villages and are now living in makeshift shelters that are not
suitable or healthy for human beings to live in," Nasrudin said.