ACknowledge

While aid money was made available swiftly following the tsunami that devastated large areas of Sumatra and other regions around the Indian Ocean more than a year ago, turning that money into reconstruction projects has been a lot slower.

Indonesia’s Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Bureau (BRR) recently threatened several aid organisations involved in the work with expulsion next year, if they don’t achieve a target of 38,000 new houses by the end of this year.


One of the main reasons for this has been the slow supply of timber, hampered by lack of infrastructure including roads and port facilities.
For instance, some 4000m3 per quarter of plantation pine timber from Australia are to enter in shipping containers through Belawan, the west coast port for North Sumatra’s city of Medan.

Belawan is the nearest port with facilities for imported materials and goods to join Indonesia’s road supply chain from Jakarta to Aceh via Medan. The timber is then taken by truck overland or by coastal landing craft up the east coast to Banda Aceh, then down Aceh’s west coast.

Acknowledging that high transport costs and slow timber supply were the main causes of building delays, UN planners organised their own freight-free overland road services. Despite this, the cost for building sphere-standard houses delivered to site rose during the year from US$3000 to US$7000.

For Nias and other islands offshore the cost would have been worse, had not UN agencies stepped in to provide cost-free shipment by sea carried in chartered large landing craft.

With many Aceh ports still to reopen, one local landing craft operator wants NGOs to consider unloading ships at anchor where jetties have yet to be restored. Two- or three-hold, self-geared open-hatch ships for example, chartered on a voyage or time basis could bring materials direct to coastal stockpiles rather than transhipping it via Belawan.

Two main Aceh west coast ports have now reopened, enabling cargo ships and cargo-carrying passenger ferries to join in Aceh’s building materials supply chain.

For Aceh’s second largest city, Meulaboh, the Singapore government took on the reconstruction of Ujung Karang harbour which became operational last month.

It is now possible to find other jetties restored, like the one Aceh timber processor Kurtas Craft has rebuilt – ready for the first inbound lumber ship which Aust/NZ forest industry company Pentarch Products may shortly arrange.

Otherwise, the coast from Banda Aceh down to Meulaboh and beyond remains short of wharves and cargo sheds. By road, the two main cities remain cut off to all but four-wheel drives. The US Aid-funded coastal road reconstruction has helped but sections still await completion by the Indonesian military, building properly graded detours and new bridges - mostly Bailey.

Timber wasn’t the only cause of delay cited by the aid organisations. They also named factors affected by local government like:
•    land availability and the establishing of legal title
•    reconstruction and safety plans, for example, reserving of land as buffer zones
•    the lengthy process of consultation and design.
Ends

1. NGOs under-achieve in housing stats to end-Feb 06
2. NGOs cite issues causing under-achieving, BRR relents on criticism
3. Changes to BRR tendering, See e-aceh site for notifications
4. Big Aceh consulting role for Cardno ACIL
5 World Bank explains aid operations, funding and peace-making significance
6 Millions feared stolen: Oxfam hopes to lift suspension on Aceh house-building soon
7. RedR in the UN and NGO networking
8. Indonesian Government performance
9. Tsunami disaster statistics
10. "Tsunami wood" is used for planks and making furniture, bricks and compost
11. First shelters built barrack style, Buffer zones give way to land tenure needs
12. Congestion delays Belawan container clearance
13. Excessive building material costs cut UN construction, while Red Cross societies opt for steel framing
14. Kalimantan timber imported for NGO’s free use on Nias Island
15. Local-use permits to log timber for Aceh reconstruction, Possible ship loads
16 Illegal logging bodes more Aceh devastation – imported ship loads urged

17. Aceh update: Landing craft make direct shipment of hundreds of tonnes of building materials possible
18. Govt loggerhead over Aceh importing timber for 78,000 new houses
19. Aceh needs timber urgently to build 16,000 temporary shelters by June
20. Aceh: NGOs are already importing timber