Post-tsunami future starts to take shape

Fri, 25 Feb 2005, 00:00 WIB | Source: DPA

John Aglionby, Guardian News Service/Banda Aceh

Among the hundreds of small communities devastated by
the December 26 tsunami was Nusa, Aceh. In a report from the
village, John Aglionby describes progress on rebuilding lives.

Mohammed Yassin has trouble falling asleep at night.

But his insomnia is not caused by haunting dreams of a second
tsunami -- the sound of construction work until late at night is
what keeps him, and other Nusa residents, awake.

"Sometimes it goes on until 11pm or midnight," he said. "Bang,
bang, bang. All the time. Every day. And then they start again at
8am." But few people in the village, six miles south-west of the
provincial capital, Banda Aceh, are complaining, because the work
is in a good cause.

"It's barracks for the refugees," Yassin said. "They will no
longer have to live in tents or with their relatives but will
have somewhere more permanent to live."

The five barracks -- as the temporary accommodation designed
and built by the government for the hundreds of thousands of
refugees across Aceh has been dubbed -- dominate the village
skyline.

Divided into 12 four-by-five meter rooms, with a balcony along
one side, the raised wooden buildings with corrugated iron roofs
look like modern versions of traditional Indonesian longhouses.

Each room has an electric socket and light fitting, and
rudimentary bathroom and kitchen blocks are at the back. Five
people will be allocated to each room. A mosque is also being
built.

Rebuilding needed, not stopgap measures

Residents of this village of 149 families support the barracks
as a stopgap measure to get refugees out of tents and the 70
overcrowded houses that are still habitable. But there are fears
that people will be stuck in them for much longer than the two
years planned by the government.

"What we really want is to rebuild our houses," said Nurul
Huda, 17, who is living in a tent with her family. She is
struggling to come to terms with the loss of her younger sister
and boyfriend and is resigned to living in a longhouse.

"We want the money given to us to rebuild, not spent on
barracks."

The dilemma for many of the 350 refugees from Nusa and 360
from surrounding villages who are now living in the village is
where to rebuild.

"We want to rebuild on safer land," said Abdul Kadir, the
village secretary, whose house is one of 40 still standing but
too badly damaged to live in. "But the land our homes were on has
been in our families for decades. That land is like blood to us."

Food is in short supply, according to the village chief,
Mafudz Din, although no one is starving. "There's a serious food
shortage in Nusa," he said.

"At the outset there was plenty but now we are not receiving
nearly so much. The military sent 93 sacks of rice the other day
but it's not a regular supply and we only have enough supplies
for about a week."

A soup kitchen, financed by the Istanbul municipal authority,
provides two meals a day on a daily budget of about Rp 1.1
million (about US$100). "Every three days we go to the Turks in
Banda Aceh," said Syamsul Fuadi, one of the village religious
leaders who is coordinating the kitchen.

"We give them our receipts from the last three days and they
give us more money. Sometimes they come shopping with us but
usually we do it ourselves."

Education

The village primary school, which caters for children aged six
to 12, has three teachers to replace those, including the
headteacher, who were killed in the tsunami.

The new teachers are from nearby villages whose schools were
destroyed. But there has been little other support; chairs and
tables damaged by refugees who fled to the school immediately
after the disaster have not been repaired or replaced, for
example.

One classroom has been requisitioned as a store for food and
other supplies for the refugees, leaving a shortage of suitable
accommodation.

"It is lucky we have received help from Unicef," said Salawati
Husein, a teacher promoted to headteacher. "They have provided
the children with education kits and the teachers with new
teaching and recreation resources." The pupils have also received
books, bags and T-shirts from private donors, including a local
TV station and an American charity.

Of the 115 pupils who attended the school before the disaster,
all but two survived. They have been joined by 19 refugees, while
four of the original roll have moved to the Islamic school on the
edge of the village run by Hidayatullah, an orthodox Islamic
organization from Kalimantan.

"We've taken in an extra 15 students," said Usman, the teacher
of the Islamic school, who has lived in Nusa for 18 months and is
now helping to look after the refugees camped in his grounds as
well as teaching.

"We've had tents from Taiwan, the Red Cross, Germany and
Switzerland, which have made all the difference," he said.

Health, sanitation, finding work

As in the rest of the village, there are few health problems,
thanks to periodic visits from Turkish, Australian, Japanese and
Chinese doctors. "The only problems are some diarrhea and the
mosquitoes," according to Usman. "Some Malaysians came about a
month ago to spray the mosquitoes, but since then they have been
10 times as bad."

The water main has also been reconnected and several
standpipes have been erected, although the village chief, Mafudz,
is hoping to have two wells dug as a backup. There is electricity
for only three hours each night to a few of the houses still
standing, thanks to a couple of generators donated by the
Japanese government.

"Each person who wants power has to pay Rp 5,000 rupiah a day
and then we connect them," said Yassin.

The villagers' priority is to find work. The rice fields are
still unusable and, if a UN study released last week is correct,
will probably remain so for months. Most of the 70 percent of
villagers who made their living from farming have small plots in
the hills where they tend crops such as cassava, chili and other
vegetables.

"It is something, but not enough to make a decent living,"
said Mafudz.

Of the remaining 30 percent, many worked at the local
furniture factory, which was destroyed. "We all helped do some
tidying up but we are still waiting for our December wages," said
one employee, Muliyadi.

"Like many of the men, I spent the first few weeks collecting
scrap metal from the fields and selling it to dealers, but there
is none left. We do not know what to do now."

Some people have been employed to help with building the
barracks and a few have set up small businesses, but many still
seem too traumatized.

"People want to work so they can earn money, look after their
families and not feel dependent," said Mafudz. "But many of us
are still too confused to think straight."

GetDPA 1.10 -- FEB 23, 2005 05:41:22

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