Rebuilding Aceh anew

Rebuilding Aceh anew

It's been weeks since the devastating earthquake and tsunami,
but the pain is still there. The tears might have dried. The dust
might have settled. People living on another continent might have
already forgotten it, but not the Acehnese. It will take a long
time to recover. For the Acehnese, it will never be the same. The
wound is too deep. There will be scars.

All of a sudden we are facing this grief. We are devastated,
and we have to think carefully about how to move on. Perhaps, we
can learn from the approach that Rotterdam city took, when their
city was destroyed by bomb attacks in World War II. They
reconstructed and rebuilt. And all of that on the foundation of
its community.

People in Rotterdam are -- up to now -- still proud to call
themselves Rotterdamers. They were, and are, the heart of the
city. It is a good example of how a city can survive such
devastation.

We have all agreed that we are going to reconstruct and
rebuild Aceh, but we have to have a clear definition of what we
mean by reconstruction and rebuilding. In this situation,
reconstruction is not just building everything all over again,
and hoping everything will be the same. Nothing is the same
anymore.

This disaster has changed our lives totally, and we have to
live with it. Otherwise, we live in denial. This is a moment when
we have to move on, with the scars on our heart. We have to move
on with the understanding that our lives are not the same
anymore, and that is the reason why we cannot build Aceh exactly
as it was. It has changed.

We are building Aceh with better urban planning. We have to
see that over and above rebuilding all the buildings and
infrastructure, the rebuilding of the community is fundamental.
The foundation is its cultural and social assets, and this time
we will build with respect to its environment.

Learning from this experience, the new Aceh city planning,
should have a natural barrier on the coastline. Mangrove and
coconut tree plantations along the coast would be a good barrier.
It is also a good investment to preserve the coral reefs along
the coast.

The city itself has to be build with a good understanding of
its social and cultural assets. It is a Muslim society. A mosque
is an important place for the community. The mosque is a center
of their social and cultural activities.

Lastly, the most important thing is that all of this has to be
done together by the Acehnese, with help from all over the world.

RESTUNING SANDINI
Urban Environmental Consultant
Bali