Survivor anger is predicted
Country could learn from tsunami
MANILA, Philippines — The man who steered Indonesia to recovery after the 2004 tsunami has some cautionary words for the Philippines as it begins planning reconstruction after typhoon Haiyan: Survivors will get angry about living in tents well before permanent houses are ready, and inflation will soon make those houses much more expensive to build.
His advice? Start working now and get survivors involved in the process.
“Please prepare warehouses now all over the region and fill them with construction materials,” said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who headed a specially created, powerful government agency tasked with co-ordinating more than $7 billion in aid that flowed to the country after the disaster. “Fix the prices now.”
The Indian Ocean tsunami killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Indonesia’s Aceh province was the worst-hit area, accounting for about half the deaths. Much of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, was levelled.
Aceh’s reconstruction didn’t always run smoothly, especially during the first year, but it is now almost universally regarded as successful. Around 130,000 houses were built in less than three years, along with scores of airports, roads and schools. It was the biggest construction project in the developing world.
These days, the only sign that Banda Aceh was the epicentre of an appalling disaster are two ships carried miles inland by the giant waves. They are now popular and well-managed attractions on a “tsunami tourism” trail in the city.
There are lessons to draw from the 2004 tsunami, and from more recent — and more criticized — reconstruction efforts after disasters in Japan and Haiti. The Philippines also has much experience of its own recovering from typhoons and other disasters.
A full assessment of the damage caused by the typhoon has yet to be carried out. There were far more deaths in Aceh. The Philippines government said Wednesday that the typhoon had killed more than 4,000 people and left 1,600 missing.