News Index

Peter Biro - International Rescue Committee (IRC) - USA, 2005-11-07
IRC helps tsunami-hit Indonesians restart businesses
Soon after the tsunami destroyed the coastline in the Indonesian province of Aceh, the IRC launched programs to help people resume their lives and jump-start the local economy. To date, the IRC has provided grants to nearly 200 small Acehnese businesses – from motorcycle taxis and car washes to beauty salons and fishing cooperatives – benefiting nearly 20,000 people. “It is important that we are focusing our help on these marginalized groups.

The Guardian, 2005-11-03
The aid honeymoon is over, so what next for Aceh's homeless?
The anniversary of the Boxing Day disaster is looming, but government inertia has left the village the Guardian has been monitoring playing a reconstruction waiting game. The community noticeboard in Nusa is conspicuously underemployed. There are no updates on reconstruction programmes and the only bulletin on livelihood is a dog-eared one from June. The only recent notice advertises monthly distribution of rice, cooking oil, noodles and sardines to those who lost their homes in December's tsunami.

The Jakarta Post, 2005-10-28
Lack of Coordination Slows Aceh Rebuilding
Poor coordination has been blamed for the slow rehabilitation and reconstruction process in tsunami-struck Aceh, particularly in the areas of housing and economic recovery, a study reveals. Conducted under the Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Appraisal (ARRA) project, the study found that coordination problems had given rise to the impression that certain service-providers had allocated certain budgets to themselves.

Aguswandi - The Jakarta Post, 2005-10-18
Aceh Rebuilding too Clumsy, Uncoordinated
Ten months after the tsunami, and six months after the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) was established, the reconstruction of Aceh is still in trouble. I am not talking here about the pace of reconstruction. Frequent complaints around this issue only beg the question "Compared to what?" My concern here is rather about information and coordination. Both are very weak areas, and something needs to be done urgently to address these and save the reconstruction.

Relief Web, 2005-10-18
FAO Improves Local Boat Building Techniques - Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Following growing concern about the sub-standard quality of boats being built in the last few months, FAO has made the training of boat builders an integral part of its efforts to ensure that safe, high quality boats are delivered to fishers. Forty-two boat builders, including representatives of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries and the network of local fisher associations, the Panglima Laot, have received training through two boat building sessions. The first session was held in the district of Aceh Utara on the east coast of Aceh while the second is being held in the Nagan Raya district on the west coast.

Puji Pujiono - The Jakarta Post, 2005-10-15
An Urgent Need to Legislate for Disaster Management
Over the weekend, close to 30,000 persons perished in one of the worst earthquakes in South Asia while another fifteen hundred were killed by floods and landslides in Guatemala. When the tsunami devastated our shores in Aceh, we thought it was the worst and last nightmare. Before long, the Nias mega quake hit. As we sighed with relief, Katrina and Rita inflicted massive destruction in the U.S. Serious attention to disasters is nothing new. The decade of the 1990s was designated to be the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).

Environtmental News Network, 2005-09-26
Tsunami Actually Aided Crops in Indonesia
From atop the coconut tree where he fled to escape the onrushing water, Muhammad Yacob watched the tsunami turn his rice paddy into a briny, debris-strewn swamp. Nine months later, Yacob and his wife are harvesting their best-ever crop -- despite fears that salt water had poisoned the land. "The sea water turned out to be a great fertilizer," said Yacob, 66, during a break from scything the green shoots and laying them in bunches on the stubble. "We are looking at yields twice as high as last year."

The Jakarta Post, 2005-09-19
BRR Vows to Speed-Up Aceh Rebuilding
The head of the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) agency has vowed to speed up reconstruction work, particularly the building of permanent houses for people left homeless by the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster. BRR chairman Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said that so far the agency had constructed around 6,300 houses, including 870 in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh, which bore the brunt of the tsunami that left over 220,000 people dead and missing as well as around half a million people homeless.

Indonesia Relief, 2005-09-16
Aceh Forests Open for Exploitation
Indonesian Ministry of Forestry MS Kaban has decided to restore forest concession (HPH) to 11 companies in Aceh to enable them supplies timbers needed for Aceh reconstruction. The decision made after Kaban discuss the timber issues with Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) and Indonesian Forestry Company Association (APHI).

Administrator, 2005-09-15
Livelihood Recovery by Livestock Rehabilitation aftermath Tsunami
Before the tsunami, livestock sub-sector at Aceh was at a good progress. It had shown by the increasing numbers of ruminant and poultry population at every year. After the tsunami, a great lost of livestock and their supporting infrastructure, affected the livelihood aspect of Acehnese. The destruction have included the loss of domestic farm animals (poultry, sheep, goats and, to a lesser, extent cattle and water buffalo), the loss of related infrastructure (barns, stores, processing facilities etc.) and the animal feed resource base (crop residues, straws and the more in-land affected pastures).