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