Standing in the doorway of her temporary
home, 40 year old Suryanti, watches a ceremony to mark the start of a housing
project in her village, Kampong Baru, in Aceh Besar.
The village had been devastated by the
tsunami last December. The boat wrecks still lying in the fields,
as well as badly damaged homes are constant reminders of the events of
almost a year ago.
But now, Suryanti is thinking of the future as she watches the village head man and a representative from the social security department lay a foundation stone for a new home.
It's one of 6,000 houses to be built under the Multi Donor Trust Fund's US$85 million Community based Settlement Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program. Covering 200 villages in Aceh and Nias, the program will also see some 10,000 homes repaired.
Suryvanti watches the stone being laid from the barracks across the road where she lives with six families. She and several other widows are sharing cramped accommodation, but she's pleased she will soon be getting a new house.
"I will tell you if I'm happy when the house is ready," she smiles broadly, alluding to some of the problems which have delayed the rebuilding process. One of them was the government's initial reluctance to allow villages like hers to be rebuilt so close to the coast. The tsunami also caused dramatic changes to the coastline and topography, leaving some properties under the sea, further complicating the issue of housing.
A key fundamental problem to the rebuilding process was the destruction of more than 15 tons of land records and the lack of titles for the large number of family-owned properties, which had never been registered.
The adjudication of property rights is the subject of a US$28.5 million community-driven Property Rights and Reconstruction of Land Administration System being implemented throughout Aceh and Nias by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDF), in partnership with the World Bank.
Community consultation has been a key element in the rebuilding process. In Kampong Baru, it's been a long process to laying the foundation stone. Villagers had to form their own committees to decide critical issues like land allocation; the number of homes to be rebuilt; what infrastructure was needed - all under a process which also aimed to protect the rights of widows and orphans.
The process was conducted under the Bank's US$10 million Urban Poverty Program, which existed well before the tsunami. The program was later expanded by a further grant of US$ 18 million from the MDF.
"The beneficiaries can choose from seven house designs, they can decide on the contractors and they will build the houses themselves with technical support from us," says Mohammed Saleh Siregar, who heads the MDF housing project in Aceh.
The Indonesian reconstruction agency, Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstrucksi (BRR), has confirmed the pace of rebuilding houses has been stepped up...from 1,000 homes being built a month in June to 5,000 in October. There are now 10,000 families now in permanent housing.
The BRR, which only became operational in April, is tasked with improving donor coordination, identification of projects and creating transparent systems for the disbursement of funds.
"I want to make sure that every dollar donated from Martha in Michigan is used for reconstruction," says BRR's Chairman, Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.
And in another indication of the quickening pace of reconstruction, the BRR says it now has 200 reconstruction projects worth US$900 million ready to roll.
Now that construction work is picking up, many Acehnese have their first real chance of earning an income. The Bank has been working with other organizations to provide training programs in plumbing, carpentering, and other skilled trades.
It may not be quite Suryanti's dream job - she's a teacher by profession - but she knows the community and her relatives will help her in the traditional spirit, one which lies at the heart of the reconstruction program.