Email
PrintTwo years on: the triumphs and trials
Yealini and one-month-old baby Rohith stand outside their new temporary shelter built in Thiraimadu camp, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, with the support of Oxfam Australia and local partner TCDO. Photo: Howard Davies/Oxfam.
When a massive tsunami ravaged coastal communities across Asia in 2004, few people realised the enormity of the reconstruction task which lay ahead. Danielle Roubin explores the successes and challenges of our response to date.
The events of 26 December 2004 remain etched in our memories. A powerful earthquake occurred off the coast of Sumatra creating a tsunami across the Indian Ocean. The receding waves unveiled enormous loss and destruction, claiming more than 230,000 lives and 350,000 homes. The local effects will
be felt for generations.
After two years, Oxfam Australia’s tsunami programs in Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia have made considerable progress. Many thousands of people have been supported to restart their lives and take action to reduce poverty.
New schools, roads, water supplies, toilets, community centres and houses provide the physical infrastructure for functioning communities. People are re-establishing their businesses or undertaking new activities to secure an income. We have provided small grants, loans and vocational training for more than 75,000 women and men.
One of these women, Palaniamma lives in Tamil Nadu, India. Before the tsunami she laboured on construction sites, earning a daily wage of 50 rupees (AUD $1.50). We have supported her with a loan and training to establish a rope-making business.
“I felt like a bonded labourer while working for a contractor,” Palaniamma says. “Now, I can take care of my family and at the same time provide employment to seven people.”
Other progress is less obvious to the eye. It is the strength which has grown out of discussions and training around rights, local government processes and preparing for future disasters.
Josephine, a self-help group member from a project we support in India summarises this approach well. “Women have now got the confidence to stand on their own feet. We are stronger than we were before,” she says. Whilst much has been accomplished, the road to post-tsunami recovery is long and much work still lies ahead. Oxfam Australia’s Tsunami Response Manager Peter Chamberlain says that rebuilding to reduce long-term poverty and vulnerability to future disasters takes time.
“Community voices are at the heart of our work. This means that affected people have a central role in planning and decision-making and can hold us accountable to our commitments,” Peter says. “This ensures that people’s rights are upheld and they have a say in the decisions that affect them. It’s not necessarily the fastest form of reconstruction, but it’s sustainable.”
Our program incorporates local information sessions and mechanisms to respond to community concerns. In Sri Lanka, we have supported the formation of village representative committees to guide rehabilitation. In one district, we have a contract with the communities to construct homes.
This husband and wife used their Oxfam Australia livelihoods grant to start a fish vending business after the tsunami. Photo: Martin Wurt/OxfamAUS.
Our advocacy has focused on ensuring that people’s rights and entitlements are upheld. In 2006, advocacy activities addressed government resettlement policies, land rights, conflict, coastal environmental protection and the quality and effectiveness of tsunami aid.
The pace of tsunami recovery this year has also been defined by the huge challenges faced in tsunami-affected areas. Problems with land titling, labour shortages, a lack of environmentally sound building materials and mistakes made by agencies during the early rush to respond, have all slowed the pace of reconstruction. Meanwhile, histories of conflict in Aceh and Sri Lanka have set complex backdrops for our operations and lasting scars on communities.
“Our tsunami program draws on decades of experience working on conflict reduction in Sri Lanka,” Peter says. “Inequities that fuel tension can be reduced through fairness in reconstruction.”
Escalating violence between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in tsunami-affected areas threatens to undermine the work we have completed. Some projects were temporarily suspended and we have experienced access restrictions in some areas that have severely limited our shelter program in LTTE-controlled regions.
“This significantly impacts the people we’re supporting. Greater insecurity may disrupt local economies, undermine support for livelihood programs and create a humanitarian emergency,” Peter says.
“Through advocacy in Australia and locally, we have urged both sides to protect civilians and aid workers, and seek a peaceful resolution.”
There have also been achievements in housing. In the past two years, we have constructed more than 2,000 temporary shelters and 80 permanent houses in Sri Lanka. The plantation timber we exported to Sri Lanka has been used to build a further 2,000 temporary shelters. There are also progree in Aceh, with around 800 homes already built and 200 more currently under construction.
“I recently visited Aceh,” Peter says. “It’s great to see new houses everywhere and more going up all the time. Unlike a year ago, no-one lives in tents anymore.”
“We realise that permanent housing is critical for people to develop livelihoods, but this takes time. New land needs to be acquired for thousands who lost their land to the sea. Processes for legal recognition of land ownership in Sri Lanka and Aceh are time consuming. Many people didn’t own land or don’t have proof of ownership.
“Our advocacy is encouraging streamlined titling processes and joint ownership for women and men for more secure and equitable tenure.”
The sheer scale of the tsunami and of Oxfam’s response has strained our management systems and arrangements, particularly in southeast India. This has led to significant changes in our ways of working and structures.
In India, implementation delays in our program have resulted in less than the intended number of beneficiaries receiving support. It has taken longer than expected to form effective community organisations and our local partners have been stretched to capacity.
Our Aceh program was also delayed this year. Monitoring revealed missing funds totalling $29,000. While most funds were retrieved, measures taken to reduce future risk have included staff fraud awareness training, a dedicated loss prevention position and improved systems.
After successfully completing work in one sub-district in Aceh this year, we are on track to complete work in two more districts in 2007. “Handing over management and maintenance of water supplies to local organisations is our goal; it means our work in these communities is done,” Peter says.
The complexity of post-tsunami development demands care and due pace. Ongoing livelihoods, access to housing and basic services, equality, inclusive decision-making processes and peace are vital for long-term recovery. These will form the currency of communities’ future resilience, prosperity and quality of life and the basis of our 2007 program.
Danielle Roubin is Oxfam Australia’s Tsunami Program Officer.