Tsunami aid houses 'not fit to be lived in'

Around 10,000 houses built by aid agencies for Indonesian tsunami victims are substandard and may have to be rebuilt.

Indonesian officials have told New Zealand aid agencies some new houses built in Aceh province have no running water, wastewater or sewage outlets.

The problems were revealed this week in Wellington by Heru Prasetyo, a director at BRR, the agency in charge of rebuilding Aceh and the nearby island of Nias.

Mr Prasetyo, who headed a delegation to thank the Government and local aid agencies for their contribution, said many agencies were involved with the faulty houses, but would not specify which ones.

New Zealand donated $97 million in aid for the Boxing Day Tsunami victims - $26 million of that came from public donations, which was distributed to several aid agencies.

Completion of houses had been slower than expected, according to BRR figures.

Only 16,000 of 120,000 houses planned for Aceh and Nias had been finished, with a further 13,000 under construction.

International Red Cross construction project co-ordinator Kevin Duignan said he was aware of "unacceptable" replacement houses lying empty.

He said some had been built without local consultation, others had been built with untreated timber and had already been "eaten out" by termites.

- NZPA