Survivors hired to clean up tsunami debris
Ruslan Sangadji and Tertiani Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh
In an effort to beat the government's latest deadline, cleaning up debris and bodies by Jan. 31, tsunami survivors, have been hired to clean up government buildings, schools and hospitals, as well as residential areas.
Funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), non-governmental organization Panglima Laot NAD has recruited at least 3,000 survivors, who started cleaning up the capital city on Wednesday.
"The refugees are paid Rp 30,000 per day, while the coordinator of each team is paid Rp 35,000," Zulfikar, 34, the manager of Panglima Laot, or sea commander in Acehnese -- an organization concerned with the traditional law and customs of Aceh, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The workers were recruited from the coastal villages of Ulee Lheu, Lhok Nga, Keudah, Kampung Jawa, Alue Naga and Cade, all in Banda Aceh municipality.
Muhammad Junelwan of the disaster coordination team based in Banda Aceh said that his team had recruited 50 people from the refugee camps since Thursday to take away corpses and to clean up the mud and flotsam inside buildings.
Also funded by UNDP, the team paid for a variety of equipment for the cleaners, in addition to providing lunch.
"We also provide them with masks, rubber gloves, boots and uniforms," Junelwan told the Post.
The executive director of the disaster coordination team, Tarmidzi Karim, said that more refugees would be recruited for the clean-up operation.
"The refugees have to be empowered ... They should be involved in the process to rehabilitate and reconstruct their home province," said the former North Aceh regent.
As of Friday, the joint humanitarian task forces in Banda Aceh had cleaned up most parts of the city and buried at least 36,000 people. "But we estimate there are 10,000 more dead bodies yet to be cleared off the streets in Banda Aceh, especially those under the rubble," Alwi added.
Banda Aceh was the area hardest hit by the devastating tidal waves triggered by the gigantic quake the day after Christmas.
Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab, who also heads the Banda Aceh disaster mitigation team, said on Friday that authorities had started building semi- permanent shelters at 24 new locations in eight districts across Aceh for the internally displaced people.
The government has begun to procure wooden planks needed to build the barracks, public kitchens, sanitation and clean water facilities, health centers and mosques at the locations, where many refugees will live for at least one-and-a-half years, he said.
"As for schools, children should not have to study in makeshift tents. We have to ask the displaced persons to leave the school buildings where they are currently being sheltered," Alwi told the Post.
He added that the construction of the barracks was expected to be complete within a month.
Alwi said the government was now prioritizing the relocation of the refugees as part of efforts to solve many problems now being faced by the disaster coordination team, including updating the death toll and the number of missing people.
However, Alwi could not detail the government's plans to resettle the displaced persons, whether they should start new villages near the relocation areas or move back to their home villages that were destroyed.
"Besides our aim is to provide the victims with comfortable living conditions. The concentration of refugees in several accessible relocation places would also reduce our dependency on the use of foreign helicopters to distribute relief supplies to remote areas, which is currently handled by foreign military forces.
"It's related to the dignity of our nation. we should be independent in carrying out the humanitarian mission," Alwi stated.
Officials have said they wanted the foreign military forces to leave "as soon as possible" while Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda has said that the foreign troops are "welcome" and that they should stay as long as they were needed.