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.