Tsunami - 10 weeks on: Fisherman powerless to earn a living

Mi Meakhathalea a fisherman in Ban Nan Khem fishing village, in the province of Phang Nga needs an engine for his new boat. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Mi Meakhathalea has a new fishing boat but he still cannot go fishing.

The boat was donated by the Swedish Government and Meakhathalea is eternally grateful. But they did not provide an engine and the one he has is broken.

The impoverished fisherman has no way of raising the 10,000 to 20,000 baht ($350-$700) to buy another so he sits and waits and hopes.

Meakhathalea is from the destroyed fishing village of Ban Nan Khem in Phang Nga Province, Thailand.

Only a smattering of people survived the tsunami 12 weeks ago. They live in broken homes in mud-caked surrounds with the smell of death in the air.

New houses are being built, as the homeless wait patiently in nearby temporary units.

Official estimates of the number who died at Ban Nan Khem are about 1000, but survivors think there were many more than that.

They say at least 10,000 people died in Phang Nga Province and that in Ban Nan Khem 3000 houses were destroyed.

Meakhathalea was out fishing the day the wave came and he survived. He lost family but remains living in one of his extended family's homes, which the water lapped but miraculously did not damage.

He shows us inside where he has stacked 140 shiny new steel floating baskets donated by a Christian foundation. Each fisherman received 140, and they are better than the old wooden ones.

But the new ones are of no use while Meakhathalea cannot get to sea to set them.

The Thai Government has given him no help, he says, because he is not considered homeless. He has no job and collects wood and metal from smashed houses to sell.

"It's the same for everyone around here," he tells an interpreter.

He takes us to the pier where his boat is moored. Once there were up to 500 boats here. Now there are just five - and only two have working engines. The rest lie smashed beyond recognition.

Not far from Meakhathalea's home, a group of technical students mix concrete in the dust, building a house as part of their coursework. It will take about 10 days to finish.

A group of Thai soldiers also toil on a house. About 3000 are in Ban Nan Khem clearing and rebuilding, following a plan so the new village will look similar to the old.

"Same house, same size to get the feeling back. Everything like in the past," says one.

In a few days 104 houses will be finished and people will begin to return. But there are 700 houses to go.

We walk past a water hole and are told they are still finding bodies here and under the sand when they dig.

In the distance broken poles stick out of swampy ground - all that is left of a floating village.

A woman passes and we are told she was rich, the owner of 20 fishing boats, but only one is left. She lost more than 10 million baht.

On the outskirts of the destroyed village is a new one, of temporary one-room units in rows where the homeless live.

The interpreter says donations have eased off and people worry that their rice supply will be gone in a month.

A woman wearing a man's shirt invites us in and we sit on the floor in front of a Buddhist shrine.

Everything in here is donated. The woman fetches photos of the remains of her old house - a few pieces of corrugated iron.

When the wave came she ran and was picked up by friends in a car and taken to the hills. The woman lost everything but the sarong she was wearing.

She does not fear going back but a woman sitting in the doorway of another room nursing her 4-month-old baby says she does not want to go to the new house under construction for her family.

The 34-year-old is scared that another wave will come.

She was not in the village the day of the tsunami but came back to find everything gone.

Psychologists have visited the homeless but the interpreter says people receive the most help from Buddhist monks who visit.

Next door, 13-year-old Piyanuch Uttamung lies on the bare floor studying. She is one of the estimated 1100 orphans in Thailand.

She haltingly tells that when the wave came her family were home and they all ran. She was ahead of her parents and when she looked back they were being taken by the water. Her sister also died. She misses them but studies hard for a better life. Piryanuch now lives with her uncle.

Next door are more relatives with terrible stories.

Sarin Narkpen and Bumpen Uttamung, who lost their 3-year-old twins, bring out a photo of smiling girls. In all, 11 members of the extended family died.

* If you are able to help Mi Meakhathalea, email catherine.masters@nzherald.co.nz