Shoeb Kagda, Jakarta – Nearly one year after 15-metre-high waves smashed into the Aceh coast, the Indonesian province worst hit by the Dec 26 tsunami is slowly but surely regaining its poise.
On that sunny morning, the tsunami took more than 130,000 Acehnese lives, left more than 500,000 people homeless, and laid large swaths of the region in waste. Much of the infrastructure on Aceh's west coast was completely crippled, with thousands of bridges, 600km of arterial roads and 650km of city roads destroyed.
The physical damage and the loss of economic activity is estimated to exceed US$1 billion, affecting the province's agriculture, fisheries and trading sectors.
Rebuilding Aceh will require, according to some estimates, more than US$5 billion, and five years of continued effort. But reviving communities will take much longer as families rebuild their lives and start afresh.
But signs of economic and community revival are clearly visible 12 months after the disaster struck. Some 16,000 homes have been built, but that is still only a quarter of what's needed. By the end of 2006, the Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) hopes to complete another 76,000 houses, said its director, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.
Sixty per cent of padi fields and fishing ponds have been cleaned, thus creating the conditions necessary for replanting and restocking by the second quarter of next year. Since the tsunami, 1,210 fishing boats have been built, with another 7,234 planned.
Work on the 247km Banda Aceh-Meulaboh trunk road, which began in August, will be completed in 2007.
Meulaboh Pier, a key entry point for essential supplies for the west coast, is well on the way to completion with the help of the Singapore government and Red Cross. The pier is scheduled to be completed by the middle of this coming year.
The province's health and educational infrastructure is also being rebuilt at a rapid pace. Two out of nine planned hospitals have been completed while work on 103 private health clinics is in progress.
BRR has plans to build 366 schools over the next five years, with 119 already completed. Primary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher learning will be built, providing Acehnese children with access to education and thus a new beginning.
All of these will require unprecedented international support, and BRR has managed to secure US $4.6 billion of the US$7.1 billion that has been pledged.
It is interesting to note that charities and other non-government organisations have actually committed US$1.403 billion of the US$1.582 billion that was pledged while multilateral donors have so far committed US$932 million of the US$1.414 pledged.
As Mr Kuntoro noted recently, the reconstruction of Aceh presents a unique opportunity to create a more open and progressive society after years of conflict and warfare.
The Acehnese have been fighting one enemy or another for more than 150 years and for the first time in a century-and-a-half, peace is truly within their grasp following the agreement earlier this year between the Free Aceh Movement and Jakarta to cease hostilities.
'We are not just rebuilding Aceh but transforming it into a more open and progressive society,' Mr Kuntoro said. Education, especially of women, will play a vital role in this process, and much effort and resources are being devoted to teaching girls and encouraging them to go as far as possible in their studies.
If BRR's plans are well executed, Aceh could emerge from the worst tragedy in its history to become one of Indonesia's most progressive and modern provinces. That would be a fitting tribute to a people who introduced the concept of money to South-east Asia and thus launched the region's emergence as a major maritime power.