Tangguh resettlement: Moving not only body but spirit

Tangguh resettlement: Moving not only body but spirit

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Bintuni Bay, Papua

Lince has finished decorating her new house. Crimson curtains
drape the doorway leading to the bedrooms from the living room. A
tablecloth of similar color covers the television in front of the
sofa. Religious posters, ornamental ceramic plates and plastic
flowers are hung on the walls.

"Our lives are much easier now," Lince, who is originally from
Maluku but who followed her husband to Papua, told The Jakarta
Post recently. "We now have clean water and a toilet."

Basic facilities were a luxury when the family of 10 lived in
Tanah Merah (red earth) village in Bintuni Bay in the province.
But since June last year, such conveniences have become part and
parcel of the lives of the 127 families who moved from the
village to new dwellings in Tanah Merah Baru (New Tanah Merah)
and Onar.

Tanah Merah was selected as the best site in the bay area to
build Tangguh -- the country's third liquefied natural gas (LNG)
plant, which will process some 14.4 trillion cubic feet of gas
discovered in several nearby fields.

Indonesia is pinning its hopes on the plant, constructed by a
BP-led consortium, to make up for the dwindling production of
fields in Bontang in East Kalimantan and Arun in Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam.

"The ground goes uphill and is of good quality," said Tangguh
project's executive vice president David Clarkson about Tanah
Merah. "The area isn't susceptible to floods and swamping."

BP and its partners started consultation with the villagers
almost six years ago to persuade them to move by offering better
living conditions. A World Bank guideline on resettlement was
used as a reference to ensure satisfying results for all
stakeholders.

The villagers opted for two locations -- 101 families chose to
live in the area now known as Tanah Merah Baru near their former
village, while the rest picked Onar further down the bay.

A team of architects from the province's University of
Cendrawasih designed the houses.

"We built a model house so that villagers could give us their
opinions," said Tangguh project's field manager Gerry Owens.
Changes to the design were made -- mothers requested a bigger
kitchen, for instance -- and in the final drawing, a three-
bedroom house was approved.

Each house on stilts is divided into two areas, which are the
front, made of timber with bedrooms, a living room and a terrace,
and the back, built from brick and comprising a toilet, a
bathroom and a spacious kitchen, connected by a three-meter-long
bridge.

Tanah Merah Baru, looking like a row of doll houses standing
neat and immaculate on a curving line from above, has two
churches, a mosque, an elementary school and a junior high
school, complete with a boarding house to accommodate students
from other areas. Water tanks are located on the outskirts of the
village to ensure supply.

As many people in the province used to embrace animism before
converting to conventional religions, the project moved not only
the people, but also the village's sacred sites. This phase alone
took two years of consultation, which at times included villagers
performing rituals to converse with the spirits.

"They (the villagers) are going to be our neighbors for the
next 40 years," Owens said. "We want them to be happy with their
new villages."

As Tanah Merah Baru and Onar are completed, the Tangguh team
is now "renovating" -- more like rebuilding -- another village
near the project site called Saengga, one of the areas deemed to
be directly affected by the LNG plant.

In Saengga, more than 90 new houses similar to those in Tanah
Merah Baru will be built. When the renovation is completed, some
US$30 million will have been spent on the three villages.

As the villagers settle in -- either by returning to the sea
to fish or taking up new jobs at the Tangguh plant -- they are
getting used to the comforts of their new lives.