Shawn Donnan, Calang (Aceh) – Almost two months after the Asian tsunamis, survivors in some of the hardest hit areas of Indonesia's Aceh province have begun rebuilding, turning to scavenged wood, recycled nails and aid from abroad to erect homes.

The work comes ahead of Jakarta's March 26 deadline to release a master plan for Aceh's reconstruction. More than 230,000 people were left dead or missing by the December 26 disaster and hundreds of kilometres of coastline were levelled.

While the beginning of building signals a shift in focus by victims from survival to the future, it also highlights a growing frustration with the plodding reconstruction process, even as dignitaries continue to fly in to view the devastation. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush senior toured Aceh on Sunday.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, said over the weekend that he had "instructed all agencies, all government apparatus, that we have to accelerate the process". Mr Yudhoyono said major construction would not get under way in Aceh until July. The government, he said, is also still determining "non-physical" aspects of the reconstruction such as how to protect property rights.

In a closed-door meeting he urged provincial officials not to wait for the central government plan to begin their own projects, according to Alwi Shihab, the minister overseeing the relief effort. Indonesia is also urging aid groups to "go out and hunt" for reconstruction projects while the plan is finalised, Mr Shihab said.

Awash in donations, aid groups are beginning to compete vigorously – some aid workers say chaotically – to take part in a reconstruction effort that Jakarta forecasts will cost at least $4.5bn over five years.

Oxfam plans soon to open a shop selling building supplies through a voucher system in one community, and is also helping survivors to rebuild on an island off Aceh's northern tip. UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, has offered to help survivors restore a community on the stricken west coast.

But a growing list of smaller organisations have begun helping to rebuild schools, health centres and homes before the government has decided where such amenities and communities should go and whether they are needed.

At the local level, the construction is driven more by emotion, confusion over what lies ahead and everyday practicalities than by any guiding vision.

In Calang, where nearly 90 per cent of a pre-disaster population of 7,300 was killed and all but four buildings were reduced to their foundations, almost the entire town remains a wasteland. Yet survivors have begun to build homes using foraged planks and recycled nails, together with zinc roofing and tools provided by a German aid group. "People are just getting on and doing their business at the local level," says Ben Negus, head of the local UNHCR office.

Zulfitrika and two brothers have been building a home for their families, a raised longhouse on land owned by one of the brothers which sits closer to the sea than any government-planned coastal buffer area would allow. "I'm a fisherman. I need to be close to the water," Mr Zulfitrika shrugs by way of explanation.

Officials in Jakarta say Calang may have to be relocated because the cost of clearing the former town's rubble will be too high. Yet the local government has decided not to wait for Jakarta's nod and is close to finishing a new office for the head, or bupati, of the local regency on the old site. "This is why the bupati gets headaches and gets confused," sighed Juanda, a 28-year-old former English teacher who co-ordinates the local government's emergency response office. "If we wait for Jakarta we don't get anything done."

[Additional reporting by Taufan Hidayat.]