Unclear rules mar Aceh's building
Unclear rules mar Aceh's building
Michael Casey, Associated Press/Jakarta
Rebuilding tsunami-devastated Aceh province has been slowed by
lands rights disputes, poor coordination and unclear policies, a
top UN official said on Friday, forcing nearly 150,000 survivors
to live in tents and other emergency shelters nine months after
the disaster.
"For the survivors who are in the tents, the conditions are
unacceptable. There is no other word for it," Eric Morris, the
newly installed U.N. Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and the island
of Nias, told The Associated Press.
"Particularly as we're into the rainy season, the conditions
will deteriorate even more rapidly," he said.
Foreign governments responded quickly to the Dec. 26 tsunami
that killed a staggering 131,000 people in Aceh and left more
than a half-million homeless, pledging billions of dollars to
recovery efforts.
Thousands of aid workers also flocked to the region to help.
But Morris said the short-term needs of homeless survivors have
largely been overlooked, partly because of political squabbling
and government indecision.
"There seemed to be a hope that various actors here in Aceh,
including the government of Indonesia, could move quickly from an
emergency shelter to permanent housing," he said. "That has not
been the case."
His comments came as the United Nations released a draft
action plan that called for the construction of 15,000
prefabricated homes in Aceh over the next six months for families
still living in tent camps. In the meantime, 27,000 new tents
will be given out to survivors.
The plan - which will be implemented by the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other aid
groups -- also says government-built barracks need water and
sanitation and that families who have taken in roughly 300,000
survivors should be given additional relief supplies.
A similar conclusion was reached for Nias, where a massive
earthquake three months after the tsunami killed nearly 900
people and left 100,000 without shelter.
"The world placed its faith in the Red Cross and Red Crescent,
the UN and other aid agencies to care for the health and well-
being of tsunami survivors," says Peter Cameron, the
International Federation's Deputy Head of Delegation in
Indonesia. "We have a humanitarian mandate to provide the most
humane living conditions possible while we help people rebuild
their homes and communities."
The building of 100,000 homes in Aceh has taken off in recent
months, but the United Nations said aid agencies are still facing
delays partly due to disputes over property - titles only exist
for about 5 percent of the land.
Difficulties getting supplies such as timber and cement into
the province have added to the slow down, it said, as has unclear
government policies on rebuilding and poor coordination among the
hundreds of aid agencies in Aceh.
Morris was careful not to blame anyone for the current
situation and acknowledged that the UN's plan should have been
issued six months ago.
"There is so much focus on rebuilding permanent houses that
we've somehow lost sight of the needs of people living in tents,
the barracks and those living with host families which we know
little about," Morris said.