The perspectives of emergency relief and rebuilding

Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Meulaboh

There is still a lot of help coming into this coastal town, even while some emergency teams rushed to Nias following the latest major earthquake late last month. The issue has been to identify what sort of help is still needed, while the government has said we are over the "emergency phase" and entering reconstruction and rebuilding.

After one of several meetings on coordinating the work of non- governmental and governmental bodies here on Thursday, the district chief of downtown Johan Pahlawan in Meulaboh, West Aceh, met with yet another NGO offering their services.

The representative says they are mostly focusing on women and children so they can get over their trauma. Such an effort is very important, she says.

"I know," says district chief T. Ahmad Dade, "I'm going quite crazy myself." A big jovial man, he's sitting under a window with dark blue curtains spotted with black stains, which after much cleaning, it seems, are now quite representable for a local authority's office in a town descended upon by hundreds of foreigners and distressed villagers apart from Jakarta heavyweights.

Among the contributors to his headache, he says, are the harried requests for help in the event of another earthquake, which locals say might come very soon.

"We're used to earthquakes by now, it's waiting for them that's driving me nuts!"

Rather than wait for another visitor reporting a coming tremor he takes the NGO visitors and a few reporters out for a short tour of the city's ruins, which include the neighborhood of his own destroyed home, a site where boats are being repaired and of rows of shop-houses, apart from the makeshift market.

"I usually get good projects taking tourists like you people around like this," he says with a chuckle. He proceeded to try to get the NGO people interested in rebuilding the shop-houses, while also showing interest in their offer to facilitate a kind of children's center.

While people are now supposed to be rebuilding their lives after the disaster struck three months ago, Dade said, "we can't do that without the shops, they make our economy move."

The NGO representatives express regrets, not to his surprise. Dade had said earlier that other NGOs have also declined, not to mention the banks.

"I'm still finding ways -- you know it's very important that we get two-story buildings, also for people to run upstairs in the event of a tsunami again." He tries again at the sight of the activist shaking his head. "At least you could build one floor but make the foundation strong enough for a (two story) shop."

Another member of the NGO explains patiently that shops would not fit into the category of emergency assistance that they see is still needed, which in the case of buildings means housing.

The NGOs might run into trouble anyway if they took up the district chief's proposal without reserve, as part of the location of the stores seem to overlap with marked areas in the government draft blueprint for the reconstruction of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

The map for coastal areas like the capital, Banda Aceh, and also Meulaboh, identify the zones near the beaches, which should be free of buildings in a bid to minimize harm in the event of another tsunami.

Lots of stores would have to be torn down in Meulaboh as the business center in this part of town runs along both sides of the inlet, which of course means both rows are right in front of the sea.

But instead of abandoning them entirely, locals are fixing what they can, indicating they will soon operate again at the same site. Residents will have the comfort of having at least part of their spare-parts center, fish market and other needs right where they were before the tragedy.

If the government is intending to distribute the funds for reconstruction so that shop owners can relocate their stores it's clearly not happening yet.

While Dade is trying to get all the help he can -- residents both inside and outside displaced persons camps and also the business community -- business woman Susana says she is not one to beg.

She says she is looking for the former local military commander, who has offered to help rebuild her devastated coffee shop.

"He used to drink coffee with his wife there," she said. The first step to getting on with life is a capital start, for which she hopes to collect only from close acquaintances who have offered her assistance. Apparently she is not among the residents who NGO people fear are becoming dependent on outside aid.

Judging from her account the closing of her own "emergency phase" came with the final answer to her prayers.

"Dear God, please show me the body of my husband," Susana said. And almost three months after she and her daughter and four-month grandchild emerged alive from the waves, on March 23 she said a local Red Cross volunteer reported seeing her husband's body, which he recognized from the jade stone on his belt.

With part of the money that friends donated, she said she bought a modest coffin "while asking for his forgiveness", and arranged a proper funeral.

Now she's ready to go on, once she can find that commander, to continue the family business. She adds, "I also must pray a lot, because there must be a reason why God has extended my life."