Expediting Homes for Tsunami Victims

Indonesia, Relief Groups Widen Plans as Thousands Remain in Temporary Shelters

Dave Hodgkin, a consultant to the aid group Fauna & Flora International, shows Acehnese villagers a design of a home. (Photos By Ellen Nakashima -- The Washington Post)

MEUDANGGHON, Indonesia -- In a field along Sumatra's west coast, a group of villagers gathered under a blue tarp, peering at a laptop computer. The screen displayed a design of a simple brick house.

"Everyone okay with this?" asked Dave Hodgkin, a relief aid consultant. "Any changes? If you want a bigger window, tell us."

"Don't change anything," a woman in a black head scarf quickly responded. "It'll slow things down."

Hodgkin works with Fauna & Flora International, a British group that is preparing to build homes in this isolated village of 60 households in Aceh province, the area hit hardest by the tsunami of more than a year ago. Similar scenes have been taking place across Aceh over the past several months as aid workers help survivors plan entire communities.

Stung by intense criticism of a slow rebuilding effort after the Dec. 26, 2004, undersea earthquake and resulting tsunami, the Indonesian government and relief agencies are moving to pick up the pace. After building about 16,000 houses in 2005, Indonesia is undertaking what officials call the world's largest reconstruction effort ever after a natural disaster. The goal is to build 80,000 homes by the end of this year and a total of 120,000 by mid-2007.

Interviews with officials and survivors indicate that accelerating the rebuilding process will not be easy. Not all of the houses built in 2005 have been occupied, according to the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh and Nias, known by its Indonesian initials BRR. Nias is an island off the Sumatran coast and was heavily damaged by an earthquake last March.

More than 60,000 people still live in tents. Another 50,000 are in barracks or other forms of temporary shelter. Several hundred thousand are living with friends and family, but many will need homes of their own.

"Until the last person moves out of the barracks into their own house, that last person will say that we are slow," according to Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, director of the government relief agency.

But beginning this year, he said, there will be 5,000 housing starts a month. Officials said the increased pace will bring logistical challenges. Building 120,000 houses will require 13.7 million cubic meters of concrete, gravel and wood -- or 1.7 million truckloads of material, officials said. It will be trucked, shipped and in some cases flown by helicopter to remote areas, said Sudirman Said, BRR spokesman.

Moving the material will be hampered by the lack of transportation facilities. The tsunami and earthquake wrecked most of Aceh's ports, highways and bridges. Officials expect a port restoration at Meulaboh to be completed by February, but others will take longer.

One recent morning, on the eastern outskirts of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, a single cargo ship loaded with sugar was docked at Malahayati port's only jetty. Two other ships, one carrying cement, idled in the harbor. The port can dock only one ship at a time.

"This is the main supply line for all the villages along the coast" of northern Aceh and part of its western coast, said Jan Roos, project manager for a construction firm hired by the Dutch government to enlarge the port. The Dutch are spending $8.2 million to dredge the harbor, build a second jetty and make other improvements. By October, Roos said, the port should be able to handle up to three ships.