Aceh's wild west coast road tests tsunami survivors

Aceh's wild west coast road tests tsunami survivors

Dean Yates, Reuters/Lhok Kruet

Nawir was anxious to get his catch of prawns to markets in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh. With no ice, time was against him. So was the road.

Nawir set out on Sunday, his pickup truck stacked with crates of prawns and a dozen hired hands sitting on top to help get through treacherous sections of the west coast road linking tsunami-hit villages to Banda Aceh in the north.

But two days of heavy rains and strong winds had left their mark. Despite clearing fallen trees off the road and making it past flooded sections and mudslides, Nawir finally had to give up at one fast flowing river that was too dangerous to cross.

His frustration illustrates what survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami face as they try to rebuild their lives six months after the disaster.

Something that will make a difference is a USAID-funded project to rebuild the entire road from Banda Aceh to the devastated city of Meulaboh, 250 km (160 miles) to the south.

"This is the economic backbone of the west coast. It is the only link for those communities," said Muhammad Khan, an official with USAID in Jakarta.

Some priority rehabilitation work will commence at the end of August on the section between Banda Aceh and the key town of Lam No, 80 km (50 miles) to the south, Khan said. At around the same time, design work for the overall road should begin.

Construction is expected to be in full swing by next April, with completion some three years later.

The project, estimated to cost $245 million, will feature more than 110 bridges and culvert crossings.

In all, the government estimates the tsunami destroyed or damaged 2,617 km (1,635 miles) of roads in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island as well as 2,267 bridges.

The poor state of the roads has already hampered aid flows and will complicate reconstruction, especially in getting materials for houses and other infrastructure down the west coast where ports were also badly damaged.

The current road to Meulaboh includes newly dug dirt sections that cut inland to replace large chunks that were washed away, as well as dozens of temporary pontoon bridges. In some places where old asphalt sections skirt rocky outcrops, waves smash precariously close.

Reopened recently, the road is not for the faint-hearted.

But buoyed by the prospect of earning some good money, Nawir set off from the destroyed town of Lhok Kruet, 120 km south of Banda Aceh, his sights on the provincial capital.

"Help us and we will help you," he said to Reuters as a burst of heavy rain drenched everyone to the bone.

The first major obstacle was metre deep mud in flatlands.

A Reuters four-wheel drive jeep dragged Nawir's Mitsubishi L300 up a ditch to go around the boggy road section before both vehicles got stuck. It took two hours to get free.

Then came a 50-metre section where rain water from nearby mountains flowed rapidly over the road at a depth of half a metre. His team of helpers waded in and first cleared scores of twisted tree branches.

"Follow us, it's easy," Nawir shouted.

Next came a mudslide. His boys used their bare hands and pieces of wood like shovels to clear a path.

A mass of fallen trees followed. Spotting a lone villager walking along the beach in the distance, one youth sprinted off.

He came back with a machete and a saw.

Just as Nawir's spirits started to soar and with Lam No now only 5 km (3 miles) away -- from there it would be an easier run along the damaged but partly asphalt road to Banda Aceh -- a giant tree of two bulging trunks lay felled by high winds.

"That's it. We have failed," said the pudgy Nawir.

Not to be deterred, one of his boys borrowed a motorbike that had followed our path and sped off to Lam No. He came back with a chainsaw. The road was open again.