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History of Aceh Reconstruction

Written By News and Fun on Tuesday 13 March 2012 | 04:07



History of Aceh Reconstruction


The 2004 earthquake and tsunami transformed Aceh forever. The tsunami devastated the Acehnese, who already had the misfortune of suffering a 30-year conflict and seen their province slide from relative prosperity in the 1970s to one of the poorest in Indonesia, notwithstanding its rich gas and other natural resources. The massive outpouring of aid and solidarity both domestic and international in the wake of the tsunami not only provided crucial relief and emergency assistance, but also created a window of opportunity to transform the political environment.
Both the Government of Indonesia and the people of Aceh seized the opportunity: the Government of Indonesia and GAM signed a historic peace agreement and this ultimately led to former GAM members winning seats in free and fair elections in provincial and many district administrations. It is difficult to imagine a more remarkable and inspiring turnaround in a region that only three years ago had been cut off from the outside world.

The earthquakes and tsunami
On December 26, 2004, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale (Source: United States Geological Survey) struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was the most powerful the world has seen in a generation. The epicentre was some 150 kilometres south of Meulaboh and about 250 kilometres from Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province. The earthquake originated at a shallow point, some 30 kilometres below the Indian Ocean. In terms of energy released, it is the worst natural event in Indonesia since the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.

The earthquake generated a large tsunami that travelled rapidly throughout the Indian Ocean, striking beachfront areas in many countries with catastrophic results in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, as well as other Asian and East African countries, killing more than 150,000 people in the Indian Ocean region.


The tsunami travelled at high speeds and 45 minutes after the earthquake it hit the Aceh coastline and within minutes it swept clean an 800 km coastal strip of Aceh – equivalent to the coastline from San Francisco to San Diego. Over 110,000 people were killed in Indonesia alone with over 700,000of those surviving findings themselves displaced from their homes when their houses were swept away or left in ruins. The tsunami caused unimaginable devastation and the scale of the damages to the local economy, infrastructure, and administration were unprecedented. In an instant, the livelihoods and security of hundreds of thousands of the survivors were ruined.

Only three months later, another major earthquake struck the nearby island of Nias, causing additional heavy damage. The magnitude of these events triggered an amazing outpouring of compassion and generosity from around the world. Private citizens provided huge amounts of support, and donors pledged generously to help survivors.


Damage and losses


These events caused immense social, economic and environmental devastation to areas that were already poor, while sparking unprecedented emergency support. Before the tsunami, more than 28 percent of the population of Aceh and Nias lived in poverty and swift recovery was further complicated by the backdrop of the decades-long conflict in Aceh.
The total estimate of damages and losses from this catastrophe in Indonesia was Rp. 41.4 trillion, or US$4.45 billion. Of the total, 66 percent constitutes damages, while 34 percent constitutes losses in the terms of income flows lost to the economy. The damage provides both an idea of the destruction of assets in the country as well as a baseline for defining the program of reconstruction.

The sectors most impacted were primarily private-sector dominated assets and activities that relate directly to the personal livelihoods of the affected urban and rural communities: housing, commerce, agriculture and fisheries, and transport vehicles and services (US$2.8 billion, or 63 percent of total damage and losses). The biggest public sector damages were to infrastructure, the social sectors, and government administration (US$1.1 billion, or 25 percent of total damage and losses). There was also significant environmental damage to coral reefs and mangrove swamps, as well as destruction of many hectares of arable land.



Reconstruction Landscape
Recognising the extent of the devastation, the Government of Indonesian (GoI) declared the tsunami in Aceh a national disaster. The international response that followed came from all corners of the world. Some 133 countries provided assistance to this humanitarian mission. Following the end of emergency response phase the government then established an agency responsible for the coordination and implementation of the rehabilitation and reconstruction plan for Aceh and Nias, the Agency of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction for the Region and Community of Aceh and Nias (BRR).

The Government has approved a national amount of US$2.3 billion (Rp 21 trillion) for the five-year rehabilitation and reconstruction program (see the table below). By the end of 2007, BRR had spent 74 percent of the budgets to date, creating a need to carry over unspent funds into subsequent years.
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