RELIEF AND RECOVERY IN INDONESIA AFTER THE 2004 INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

RELIEF IN ACEH AFTER THE 2004 INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

Operation Flying Eagle: post-tsunami relief in Aceh by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), among the first in scene

All kinds of groups and organizations were involved in the relief effort in Indonesia, especially hard-hot Aceh Province, after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. More than 100 United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups provided assistance in Indonesia after the earthquake and tsunami. Among the biggest ones were the United Nations World Food program and the Red Cross. Indonesia received $4 billion in donations, many of them from abroad. Much of the aid came by sea because the earthquake and tsunami damaged roads, bridges and airstrips and made access by plane or vehicle impossible.

The International Islamic Relief Organization — one of Saudi Arabia’s largest Islamic charities — was involved in the relief efforts in Aceh. Some Western governments were worried that the group would include radical Islam messages along with relief supplies. Indonesia Islamic militant groups like Laskar Mujahedeen. Majelis Mujahedeen and Islamic Defenders front — some of which had ties to Al-Qaida and were involved in massacres of Christians — also helped out. Local people organized fleets of boats to move supplies up and down the coast. The Indonesian Muslim group Muhammadiyah helped the families of victims. Oxfam ran cash-for-work programs in Meaulaboh instead of giving food handouts. There were so many groups some complained about confusion, lack of central organization and duplication.

The first international aid group didn’t arrive in hard hot Meulaboh until January 2nd, six days after the disaster,. It was a Singapore armed forced medical until that arrived by helicopter. They worked in camps where a number of people had gangrene, badly inflected wounds and diseases like tetanus. Many had gone so long without medical care the only hope they had of survival was amputation. An Indonesian medical team arrived earlier but lacked equipment. Before they arrived relief was provided mainly by survivors to survivors. Camps were set up around mosques.

One of the first objectives was to fix bridges and roads so supplies could be brought in by truck. Many places were cut off and only accessible by helicopter or boat. Even deliveries by boat was problematic. Some sunk after they hit debris in the water. Others capsized trying to come ashore in heavy surf. The relief effort was initially slowed by the Indonesian government preventing access to Aceh because of the Aceh conflict. The effort took some getting going because relief agencies had few contacts in the region, again because they had generally been kept out of the region because of the Aceh conflict. Even Indonesian groups had trouble getting in. It took72 hours for the first relief mission from an Indonesian charity to arrive. The first on scene were the military and in some cases the Aceh separatists. Early efforts were chaotic and confused. Thousands lined up for water and food. Fights and mad scrambles broke out when helicopters dropped off bags of food. People hung out at the airport in Banda Aceh so they could get first dibs on food supplies that arrived there.

Banda Aceh had a usable airport so supplies could be flown in there. Meulaboh offered more challenges. It was completely cut off. It had no airport and the roads into it were completely destroyed. The most immediate need was getting enough drinking water there. The city’s two water treatment plants were destroyed and tanker truck could not bring in water because the roads were out. Some water was brought in by helicopters. The Spanish Red Cross set up a temporary water treatment facility while Oxfam engineers tried to get the city’s main water treatment plants up and running. This involved building water storage facilities and bringing in or fixing generators and other heavy machines.

Hunger, Trauma and Mental Issues in Post-Tsunami Ac3h

Singapore Air Force delivering aid

About a month after the tsunami, the United Nations warned that hunger was an issue with survivors of the tsunami in outlying villages of Aceh. Reuters reported: Street stalls in Banda Aceh, bustled as shopkeepers sold pineapples, tomatoes, bright red chillis, purple scallions and sides of meat for a major Muslim festival. But many elsewhere in the region were not so fortunate. Meulaboh, a seaside town on the coast in Aceh and Aceh’ second largest city, lay directly in the path of the December 26 wave, Some shops and markets were busy and food appeared to be available. But not enough help was reaching people outside major urban areas, said Daniel Augstburger, head of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Meulaboh. [Source: Reuters, January 20, 2005]

American volunteer nurse Linley York said she had heard reports from an Indonesia working with her that people in a camp in the village of Beurawang to the north were eating leaves. If that hunger results in starvation and disease it could further swell the staggering death toll from the tsunami. Augstburger said there said emergency aid drops would have to be sharply increased to avoid hunger in outlying areas. "The French are starting to move food, of course the Americans... are moving food out, but this has to increase ten-fold," Augstburger told Reuters, adding that tsunami victims also needed items such as clothes and cooking utensils.

Around the same time, the Telegraph reported: Aid workers feared that the number of destitute people needing to be fed in Aceh would soar to 790,000. As of late January 2005, 340,000 tsunami victims were being given food by the United Nations World Food Programme in Aceh but this figure will rise as isolated villages are reached and the economic effects of the disaster take root, said Claude Jibidar, the WFP chief there. Many will face hunger because they cannot sell crops after disruption to their normal trade networks or because food stocks have been shared with refugees. However, malnutrition is not expected to "explode", Mr Jibidar said. [Source: The Telegraph, February 1, 2005

Indonesia launched its biggest mental health drive in an attempt to help traumatised tsunami survivors, many of whom have never heard of psychological counselling. "We have 650,000 refugees who are in a very unstable emotional condition," said Yulizar Darwis, who heads the mental health division of Indonesia's Health Ministry. "We should reach all of them — if not, we estimate that between 20 and 50 per cent could have serious mental problems." The ministry launched a $120,000 program, funded by the United Nations World Health Organisation, to establish guidelines for treating survivors and to send counsellors to affected areas. [Source: Andrew Quinn, Reuters, January 13, 2005]

UNHCR provided tents in the emergency phase of the tsunami relief operation in Aceh province

Reuters reported: “Many of the worst-hit areas are remote, and traditional community support structures for mental health — ranging from extended family to religious institutions — have been badly damaged. Aid workers in Aceh report rising numbers of survivors showing what Western psychologists would call post-traumatic stress disorder, with symptoms ranging from sleeplessness to depression, rage and despair. "Severe stress and grief are commonplace and people are too terrified to return to their seaside homes for fear of tsunamis in the future," international relief group Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has four psychologists in the area, said in a statement.

Even those who show no immediate effects may be at risk. "When a tragedy like this happens, sometimes the problems don't emerge immediately — it can take years," said Seto Mulyadi, a child psychologist and the head of Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection. Children will be a particular focus of the counselling program, which will develop "play-centred" programs aimed at easing shocked children back into normal social routines despite the devastation around them."We need to stimulate their spirit," said Lita Sarana, head of health at the Indonesian Red Cross Society.

Relief Effort Three Weeks After the 2004 Tsunami

Reporting from Banda Aceh, Edward Girardet wrote in National Geographic: the tiny airport was transformed by the global mobi-lization of human and material resources. A sprawling phalanx of military encampments had mushroomed on either side of the single runway. It looked like a Boy Scout jamboree many thousands strong: British, French, Japanese — about a dozen national flags fluttered in the warm wind. Tents stood shoulder-to-shoulder in regimented rows; others of different shapes and colors perched randomly around them. Aid workers and soldiers stacked food and medical supplies along the runway aprons, oblivious to the constant roar of Antonov transport planes, C-130s, and helicopters. [Source: Edward Girardet, National Geographic, December 2005]

“By the time I'd arrived, in mid-January, in the northern Sumatran city of Medan, a principal launching pad for the relief effort in Aceh Province, the area was swarming with aid workers, journalists, and military personnel. They'd been frantically dispatched within days of the tsunami by governments, the United Nations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world.

“Aid organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, CARE, and the International Res-cue Committee also soon found themselves competing for space with newcomers to the humanitarian relief scene. The Church of Scientology, for instance, flew in dozens of smiling young volunteers. Wearing bright yellow T-shirts, they hoisted colorful banners and tents smack in the middle of Banda Aceh. One smiling American college student raved about the amazing things the church was doing in the treatment of child trauma. Meanwhile, young Islamic militants, some wearing face masks, drove around in truck convoys. Their principal concern was to give relief, to clean mosques, and provide as many bodies as possible with proper Muslim burials. ..The place teemed with a high-adrenaline "we're all in this together" camaraderie. On the airport runway I watched a group of Indonesian Red Cross volunteers climb aboard a Singaporean military transport plane, exhausted yet wistful. "What I will remember most is how all these countries came here to help," said 27-year-old Jailani, a student from Borneo. He shifted the heavy backpack on his slight shoulders and disappeared into the plane.

US Navy hovercraft bring drinking water and supplies to cut-off Calang in Aceh

“Not far from the tarmac, soldiers from an Australian engineering regiment worked in camouflage fatigues, hauling heavy equipment for a water purification plant that would eventually process more than 5,000 gallons an hour. Taking a break, they cracked a few jokes, then turned serious. "We're trained for warfare," said a corporal with short-cropped hair. "But in some ways this sort of experience is more sobering. Perhaps it makes us better human beings."

“Perhaps. But several long-term coordinators and some international relief workers redeployed from vital humanitarian efforts elsewhere, notably Africa, were resigned to the uneven allocation of international aid resources. Even as relief workers distributed vitamin-reinforced, high-energy biscuits to hungry children, or dug latrines for emergency shelters, I heard voices raised in distress at the massive influx of aid. The existing infrastructure in Aceh Province was overburdened, there were absolutely no seats available on planes, ground facilities overflowed with supplies, some of which — winter clothing and out-of-date medications — were inappropriate.

“Nigel Snoad, a 33-year-old Australian who headed the UN Joint Logistics Centre in Banda Aceh, had a different complaint. "In the past 28 minutes I've missed 59 calls," he said, waving his ringing cell phone. Snoad said the overkill reac-tion was causing enormous problems with field operations, and he baptized the flood of phone calls and the never ending inquiries from diplomats, NGOs, and volunteers Asia's "second tsunami." For the worn-out aid coordinator, the situation had reached "an insane level of chaos." "When," he asked, "is anyone going to have the guts to tell them that we have enough? That we don't need any more?"

In the village of Calang, the Indonesian military burned heaps of donated used clothes to make room for more needed supplies. On top of taking care of the victims, People helping the victims also had to be fed and housed. "It's perfectly understandable that people want to help, but this sort of situation needs organizations with experience receiving and distributing resources," said an agitated Danish Red Cross official. "I know this sounds harsh, but it really doesn't help to come here or to bring things that aren't needed. When people ask to help, we tell them the best thing is to donate money."

Muslim Charities Involved in Tsunami Relief

Michael Casey of Associated Press wrote: Members of the Justice and Welfare Party load relief good for refugees in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. "What we were attempting to do in finding a home for these orphans is no different from what Mother Teresa did in placing Hindu orphans in a Christian children's home," said Vernon Brewer, president the ministry. [Source: Michael Casey, Associated Press, January 13, 2005]

“The collection of religious groups in this conservative Muslim city, which has only five churches, has raised the possibility of sectarian violence but has also led to some unusual partnerships. The Islamic Defenders Front — known for trashing Western pubs in Jakarta — spent much of this week removing corpses from collapsed homes alongside an Indonesian Christian group. Mormons have teamed up with Islamic relief operations to send aid to the region.

“The United Nations asked the extremist Muslim group Laskar Mujahidin, which allegedly has links to al-Qaida and has been accused of killing Christians in an earlier conflict, to unload a plane of relief supplies because it was short of personnel. "Everyone wants to help in this catastrophe and prejudices are put aside," said Mans Nyberg of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "Of course, they are serving a role."

“Still, the dozens of refugee camps have in some ways become the battleground for religious groups. Muslims especially appear to have filled a void left by the government and quickly set up medical clinics, opened schools and are providing much of the food and medicines for tens of thousands of refugees. "We need religion. We need to remember our God," said Sari Andina, a 23-year-old teacher whose camp features a mosque where children are taught Islamic studies.

“The most prominent Muslim group is the Justice and Welfare Party, a political party that has become popular with its message of morality and clean government. Nearly 2,000 volunteers — wearing the party's black and yellow — arrived days after the disaster and are a common sight driving around the city or unloading tons of aid at the airport. For party members like Jamy, the Dec. 26 tsunami was a warning for Muslims. He and other volunteers say that another disaster is inevitable unless people start living according to the teaching of the Quran. "We tell them this came from God and we have to be strong," said Jamy, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. "This is some kind of a lesson. People forgot about God and he has now punished them. Maybe now people will realize what they have done and start going to the mosque."

“The task is more complex for Christians because they have often been a target of violence in Indonesia, partly over allegations they were attempting to convert Muslims. Since the fall of the dictator Suharto in 1998, thousands of churches have been bombed and burned. Fighting between Muslims and Christians has killed thousands in the provinces of Central Sulawesi and the Malukus islands. "Any time you have a strong Muslim community and concerns about Christianization, there is going to be conflict," said Eddy Rubble, a North Carolina Christian who is volunteering here. "I'm afraid that after months of people helping one another survive, it will only take one spark to create a big issue."

Tsunami Relief Efforts and Religion

Many Muslim Indonesians had questions about the methods of some of the evangelical Christian groups helping in the relief effort. One Christian group, the Jerry-Falwell-sponsored World Help, was prevented from airlifting 300 Muslim orphans to a Christian children’s home in Jakarta. Muslim clerics took issue with Western Christian groups handing out Bibles along with food. But Christian groups also took issue with the actions of Muslim groups. The Church of Scientology established a presence in Banda Aceh, setting up a base opposite the governor's mansion. 'We are not here to proselytise. That would be distasteful,' said Greg Churilov. 'We hope we are just seen as another relief group.' [Source: Jason Burke, The Guardian, January 15, 2005]

Michael Casey of Associated Press wrote: “Muslim radicals are handing out Qurans with the bags of rice and sugar they distribute to tsunami victims. Christian aid groups have also rushed in, quietly promising salvation in this predominantly Islamic region but fearful their presence could spark sectarian violence. Across the Indian Ocean basin, dozens of faith-based groups have joined relief efforts in the wake of the December tsunami.The groups include everyone from al-Qaida-linked militants to evangelical Christians, and their presence is most profound in Indonesia, where the needs are greatest and the cash-strapped government has thrown open the doors to foreign aid groups. [Source: Michael Casey, Associated Press, January 13, 2005]

“A member of the Justice and Welfare Party load relief good for refugees in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Muslims radicals are handing out Qurans with the bags of rice and sugar while the moderates are leading Islamic studies sessions in refugee camps. The heavy Muslim influence in Aceh province — one of the few Indonesian regions that has instituted Islamic law — has defined how the groups operate. While Muslims are bragging about their religious credentials, Christian groups are mostly invisible and instruct workers not to display their church names or wear crosses.

"We prefer to address the physical needs first," said William Suhanda, an Indonesian whose Christian group "Light of Love For Aceh" is helping distribute food in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, and wants to bring 50 children to a Christian orphanage in Jakarta, the national capital. "We also want to expose them to Christian values," he said. "It is so they can see the other side, that we're about the love of Christ. But this is not the place to carry a Bible."

“But evangelists like Wisconsin native Mark Kosinski say it's impossible to separate relief activities from sharing the Gospel. He acknowledged he was warned to tone down his message but says he has "a job to do." "These people need food but they also need Jesus," said Kosinski, who arrived this week from Malaysia. "God is trying to awaken people and help them realize that salvation is in Christ." One Virginia-based ministry considered airlifting 300 orphans waiting at the Banda Aceh and Medan airports to a Christian children's home in Jakarta. WorldHelp started raising funds for the operation until it learned that the government banned non-Muslims from adopting Acehnese orphans.

American and Foreign Military and the Relief Effort

The United States sent Expeditionary Strike Group Five, made up of a an aircraft carrier group and a Marine Expeditionary group, to Aceh Province to provide emergency relief. The carrier group, which been on its way to the Persian Gulf, stopped in Guam for ten hours to pick up supplies (among them all the shovels, lumber, hammers and nails at the Ace Hardware store there), and arrived just a few days after the tsunami. At is peak there were 15,000 American troops helping with the relief effort. It was the largest United States military effort in Southeast Asia since the end of the Vietnam War. The endeavor boosted the reputation of the United States in Indonesia at time when its image was suffering as a result of its activities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Helicopters from the USS Abraham Lincoln battle group brought in the first supplies to some of the hardest hit areas. They ran dozens of mission a day, dropping off food and medicines to survivors and taking injured and sick patients to the 1,000-bed hospital ship USS Mercy. More than two dozen ships, 454 planes and 50 helicopters were mobilized at a cost of $5.6 million a day. A Marine Corps general told the New York Times that organizing the relief efort was like “planning you family vacation while you are packing the car....We are doing something unusual here: Planning, executing and deploying concurrently.”

The American military was the largest tsunami aid group. Troops — more used people treating them with hostility and suspicion — were happy to see people greet them with smiles and appreciate what they were doing. One soldier told the Los Angeles Times, “People sure are nice here. Not like Iraq.” Unlike Iraq U.S. troops could walk around freely, without guns. and body armor. The U.S. military worked closely with the United Nations and other relief agencies. Their planes, helicopters and hoovercrafts were the only way to deliver supplies quickly.

A week after the tsunami, Reuters reported: Substantial help has finally begun reaching refugees in some of the more remot e parts of Aceh and the U.S. military has arrived in force, parking a flotilla of ships off the coast. Hundreds of survivors gathered at Banda Aceh's airport to watch U.S. Sea Hawk helicopters, Singaporean Super Puma choppers and Australian and Indonesian Hercules transport planes. [Source: Reuters, January 3, 2005]

"I've never seen anything like this. We've seen bodies 20 miles out to sea. You just cannot describe it," Captain Larry Burt, commander of a helicopter wing on the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln parked off the coast, told Reuters. "Above the water line, there are people standing there waving flags trying to signal us. There are so many, you just can't stop for all of them," he said after a mission down the west coast, which bore the brunt of the Dec. 26 quake and tsunami. U.S. and Indonesian military helicopters landing in remote areas were swarmed by starving villagers as flight crews threw out boxes of bottled water and food.

The Japanese military also sent ships to Aceh in what was that country’s largest overseas military operation since World War II. The Japanese sent three ships — a destroyer, an amphibious ship and a supply vessel? loaded with trucks and medical equipment, two hovercrafts and 970 military personnel. The ships arrived in mid January. Their primary goal was to provide medical service and prevent epidemics. Troops arrived from a total of 11 nations, including Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. They were generally greeted much more warmly than the Indonesian military.

Indonesia Government and the Relief Effort

A week after the tsunami, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the focus of the operation was on "emergency relief and early rehabilitation programs...evacuation of survivors, search for bodies, and, God willing, possibly those who are still alive." The Indonesian military said it had killed three GAM — the Free Aceh Movement — separatists in north Aceh after they obstructed a humanitarian team, adding to claims from both sides accusing each other of initiating clashes. [Source: Reuters, January 3, 2005]

The Indonesian government put strict limits on how long foreign troops could stay in Aceh. A month after the disaster it was pressuring them to leave. The government’s position was that the military groups were helpful in the emergency phase but not required during the rebuilding stage.
The Indonesian government wanted the stay of international groups to be minimal so they didn’t comprise the government’s position in Aceh. Before the tsunami foreign aid groups and journalist had been prohibited from entering Aceh. Many of the Acehese wanted the foreign troops to stay as long their services were needed, possibly for years.

Yudhoyono, who had been elected president not long before the disaster, was given mixed reviews for his role in the relief effort. He appeared in Aceh the day after the disaster and visited the province four times in the first two months afterwards. But he was criticized for dawdling and not showing the kind if leadership that could have mobilized people. He gave in to pressure from the military, which refused to fully deploy it resources in Aceh, and established a special authority to oversee Aceh’s reconstruction and then failed to develop a comprehensive plan. Indonesians generally seem to felt he did a good enough job. Polls in January and February showed an 80 percent approval rating.

The government was initially criticized for being slow to respond and the military was condemned for putting its own interests ahead of those of Aceh’s tsunami victims. Many military drivers left their posts rather than help delivering much needed supplies. Jane Perlez wrote in the New York Times: The Indonesian Army, which ruled Aceh, for 30 years, should have been easily able to mobilize a relief operation after the December 26 tsunami disaster but there was a problem: Nearly all the military drivers here fled their posts for safer ground, some even escaping hundreds of miles away. The mass desertion of drivers meant that the military's trucks and other heavy equipment, needed to rescue survivors and remove dead bodies, had no operators. It was one example of how Indonesia, which suffered the greatest loss of life of all nations affected by the tsunami, appeared the slowest to grapple with the magnitude of what happened. [Source: Jane Perlez, New York Times, January 3, 2005]

In Aceh many survivors were suspicious of the government because of the long-running conflict in Aceh. They because especially apprehensive when the Indonesian military become heavily involved in the relief effort.Around 40,000 Indonesian troops arrived in Aceh after the tsunami. Some soldiers were accused of extorting money from boat owners and stealing foreign aid and continuing with their campaign against the Aceh separatists. All in all, however, most NGOs said the military did a good job providing assistance.

On the issue of corruption, a member of Indonesia Corruption Watch told AP, “Based on past experience in other disasters in Indonesia, corruption is highest in the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase, rather than during the emergency response.” Yudhoono hired the accounting agency Ernst & Young to track relief funds and pledged to work closely with donor countries to ensure that aid money was not stolen. A senior welfare minister said the government would publish a monthly list of all aid “contribution and where it is going to avoid any suspicion.”

Aceh Separatists and the Tsunami Relief Effort

Aceh separatists helped tsunami survivors. One rebel leader told the Washington Post: “What we had we gave to refugees.” He described how he and his men came down out their hideouts in the hills, risking capture by the Indonesian military, to deliver what little supplies and aid they had — some food and water, antibiotics, iodine and bandages — to the coastal areas, and helped search for survivors and set up medical stations. In some places they were the first people to respond. Many of the rebels lost family members and friends to the tsunami. The melted back into the hills when the international aid agencies and military arrived in force on the scene.

Aceh separatists said that foreign aid workers were welcome and promised not to attack them. The military offered to provide aid agencies with escorts for protection from the rebels. But they couldn’t escort everybody and when they did provide escort services it often slowed the relief process. The military accused separatists of attacking relief convoys, charges that both the rebels and foreign aid groups denied.

In the days that followed the disaster, both the Indonesian government and the Aceh separatists agreed to freeze military operations and focus on helping victims of the tsunami. The government widely ignored the informal truce and reported in late January that it had killed more than 200 specked rebels. Ultimately the tsunami helped bring the Indonesian government and the Aceh separatist to the bargaining table and hammer a peace deal for Aceh.

Economic and Environmental Impacts of the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia

The tsunami caused an estimated $4.5 billion in losses and damage in Indonesia. Some men with boats were able to make money transporting supplies to tsunami-stricken areas. After the disaster the Asian Development Bank approved a $300 million grant for Indonesia, its largest grant ever. Exxon’s large facility in Aceh was un affected,

Tourism in Indonesia was affected more than it should have been. Aceh was in sorry shape but it received only 0.05 percent of foreign arrivals to Indonesia before the disaster. Many foreigners cancelled trips to parts of Indonesia that were unaffected by the tsunami. Tourism officials expressed frustration over the cancellations. Bali, for example, was not even remotely affected by the disaster and is almost 2,000 miles away from Aceh.

The environmental damaged caused by the tsunami was estimated at $675 million, with most of the damage occurring to coral reefs, mangrove swamps and degraded farmland. In areas affected the tsunami an estimated 30 percent of the coral reefs were damaged, 30 percent of the coastal forests were lost, 20 percent of the sea grass beds were lost and 25,00 hectares of mangroves were washed away.

In some places the earthquake cause the earth to shift more than a meter upwards., pushing coral reefs above the surface of the water. Damage to mangrove swamps in Aceh stretched along more than 1,000 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of acres of forests in Indonesia were logged to harvest lumber for rebuilding. There were calls for donations of foreign lumber to reduce the amount of deforestation in Indonesia

Aceh Six Months After the 2004 Tsunami

In June 2005, Dean Yates of Reuters wrote: Six months after the Indian Ocean tsunami, the west of Aceh province remains a scene of utter devastation, a vast swathe of land stripped of villages, trees and plantations. Where there were once idyllic beaches, mangroves and settlements, there is now scoured earth. In many places salt water lies in once fertile rice fields now devoid of farmers. Around the Indian Ocean rim, the tsunami caused widespread damage to the environment and experts say it will take years, if not generations, to recover. Even now, a full picture of the damage is only just emerging. Coral reefs, mangroves, beaches, plantations and coastal farms have been damaged or destroyed in at least six nations. [Source: Dean Yates, Reuters, June 19, 2005]

Nowhere was the destruction so great as Aceh province, where up to a thousand villages are believed to gave been destroyed. In some parts, the damage is so great they are likely to be uninhabitable for years. Vast areas need replanting. Gregory Blamoh, head of the World Food Programme in Calang, 160 kilometers south of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, says he has seen no one planting rice since January. "That says a lot about what happens here. It means people will be dependent on food aid for some time."

With so much destroyed, Claude Martin, Director-General of conservation group WWF International, says there will also be huge demand for timber to rebuild towns in Aceh. "This could leave large areas in Sumatra devastated if we are not very careful to ensure there is a sustainable timber supply," he told reporters in Hong Kong.

Life Returning to Normal — Kind Of — in Aceh, 17 Months After the Tsunami

In Aceh, even in places that lost 75 percent of their population, markets were bustling against by mid January. Schools reopened in late January about a month after the disaster. There were many empty desks. Some kids didn’t realize their best friends were gone until they didn’t show up at school. At one school in Banda Aceh only 260 of the 620 enrolled students and 25 of the 75 teachers at the school showed up. In some cases schools were still filled with debris and books that were wet. An estimated 180,000 students had no schools to return to. Around 700 of the 1,100 schools in Aceh were destroyed or damaged.

In July 2006, 17 months after the disaster, Jane Perlez wrote in the New York Times: “Life in Aceh... has resumed a semblance of normality. For the most part, children are in school, roads are being rebuilt, outdoor markets are packed with local produce, employment is not too hard to find, and even the peace accord between the national government and separatist guerrillas is sticking. Almost everyone has been moved out of muddy tents, though many families still live in dilapidated barracks. [Source: Jane Perlez, New York Times, July 27, 2006]

“Work on a highway down the devastated west coast of the province, financed by the United States government, is under way, and a new port has opened in Meulaboh, the seaside town that was smashed to smithereens. Of the lucky ones with a roof over their heads, those with houses built by the Turkish Red Crescent Society are the most pleased. “They’ve given us good quality,” said Khairuman, 45, a building laborer, and his wife, Suginah, 43, as they showed off their blue-tiled bathroom replete with bath and shower in the beachside community of Lampuuk. Like many Indonesians, they use one name.

“The Red Crescent Society paid $10,000 for each brick house, about double the cost of houses built by other agencies. And it sent a team of engineers with experience from the 1999 earthquake in Turkey. “The people of Aceh suffered; they need to stay in good houses,” said an engineer, Ali Pekoz. From the sunproof window glass to imported hinges on the doors, the Turks chose the best fittings, he said.

“One of the occupants of the tiny new temporary homes built by another aid organization, “Cut Darnita, decorated her interior with vases of fabric roses and orchids, a cheery red rug and a coffee table draped with a white linen cloth. The five-member family lay down mats on the floor to sleep at night. “It’s small but nice,” she said of the room, about 226 square feet. When would she get a permanent home? Ms. Darnita shrugged.

Reporting from Banda Aceh in December 2006, two years after the tsunami, Seth Mydans wrote in the New York Times: “All across the ravaged cityscape, scraped bare by the waves, thousands of tiny, toy-box houses have sprung up in recent months as a program of rebuilding gains momentum. But many of the new houses are empty because they lack water, sanitation and electricity and because there are no schools, clinics or commercial activity nearby. Many of the people whose homes they replaced were swept away to their deaths. Old landmarks are gone, and it is bewildering to trace a remembered path through this sketch of a city. At night the heart of the ruined area is almost as dark and silent as it was before construction started. This rebuilt city of ghosts seems like a ghost town.[Source: Seth Mydans, New York Times, December 26, 2006]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Library of Congress, Indonesia Tourism website (indonesia.travel), Indonesia government websites, Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated June 2026