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.