Aceh Housing Assistance Program

Background

Aceh bore the brunt of the destructive power of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami. Over 180,000 houses were destroyed and essential infrastructure decimated along a stretch of coastline equal in distance to that between Brisbane and Sydney, with over 500,000 people displaced initially.

Over 120,000 houses - the equivalent of more than 120 average Australian suburbs - need to be rebuilt in Aceh and Nias, once land title has been re-established and roads and ports rebuilt to allow access to all building sites. At end December 2006, close to half of the new housing required had been completed. An estimated 95,000 people were still living in tents in late 2006, and about 50,000 in temporary living centres.

The dire needs in Aceh saw the Government, NGOs and donors focus on ensuring that internally displaced people had safe and adequate temporary shelter in locations that have access to health and education services, clean water and sanitation services. The priority then shifted to building permanent housing for those who lost their homes in the tsunami.

Description

The Australian Government initially committed A$3 million to temporary housing assistance in Aceh to move displaced people from tents to semi-permanent housing and to improve conditions in temporary living centres.

Australia's support has involved:

• In partnership with NGO and the UN Australia has constructed high quality temporary homes (otherwise known as “flat-packs”) for people living in tents;
• Provision of technical expertise and personnel to work alongside NGOs (including Australian Red Cross and Catholic Relief Services) to come up with appropriate solutions for water and sanitation, logistical and other challenges associated with the provision of semi-permanent housing;
• Improvements to water, sanitation, drainage and general conditions in temporary living centres.

Australia has played an important role in ensuring successful implementation of temporary housing projects and is extending this assistance to permanent housing with an additional A$7 million. Australia is providing construction and technical support to help NGOs build the houses they have pledged and to assist communities to address gaps in housing reconstruction.

Australia is also conducting large-scale community land mapping to enable housing reconstruction to take place and helping the Government of Indonesia in housing policy development and in planning and rebuilding vital infrastructure to allow access to more remote building sites.

Achievements/outcomes to date

• constructed some 1,250 temporary shelters, housing over 8,000 people, and restored water and sanitation services and made improvements to living conditions across 20 villages;
• provided employment to several hundred local tradespeople in housing reconstruction, enabling local communities to participate in the rebuilding process and learn construction skills;
• mapped over 77,000 parcels of land by end December 2006 to re-establish land title in 331 tsunami-affected villages, with community land mapping underway in another 61 villages - helping to address a critical impediment to housing reconstruction;
• completed 22 village spatial plans by the end of 2006, to support the reconstruction of fully-integrated housing communities, in Aceh Besar district, with another 60 nearing completion in Aceh Jaya, Aceh Besar and Nagan Raya;
• established a housing database in West Aceh district to improve coordination of housing delivery; and
• provided technical advisers to help the BRR resolve a range of challenges in housing delivery, including safeguarding quality standards for construction and addressing logistical and sustainably harvested timber supply problems.

This page was last updated on 25 January 2007

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