Tsunami Recovery: The Lessons

摘要

I recently had opportunity to visit Aceh and get a snapshot of reconstruction following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. It adds up to an impressive achievement, given the scale of destruction, with half a million people made homeless by the flattening of more than 100 000 houses and a similar number of lives lost. Vivid evidence of the magnitude of the forces of nature unleashed on that occasion is an ocean-going barge, weighing some 8000t, stranded in a residential area several kilometres inland after being swept through a major housing district, adding to the carnage.rnAlongside the good news there are inevitably lessons to be learned about appropriate response to disasters of this magnitude. It is widely acknowledged in Aceh that the disaster was followed by a virtual tsunami of donor funds that overwhelmed the capabilities of governments and the international community to put them to effective use. NGOs with a specific mandate competed to disburse donated funds. In some instancesrnthis gave rise to anomalies such as communities with more schools than the student population requires, libraries with no books, clinics that cannot be staffed, hospitals with no operational budget, and hastily built boats declared un-seaworthy.