Capital thriving nine years on from tsunami

A car passes by houses rebuilt after the Dec. 25, 2004 tsunami hit Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, Indonesia. Photo / AP

Nine years after the Indian Ocean tsunami, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province is thriving, with a large ship pushed inland by the wave among few reminders of the devastation.

Lives have returned to normal for many, but others still struggle with a lack of adequate housing.

"I will never forget that day. It was a terrifying experience," says 29-year-old Nanda Suhada, whose father, brother and grandmother died when the wave struck their neighbourhood in Banda Aceh.

She works as a tourist guide on a 2600-tonne ship, once a floating power plant, that was pushed three kilometres inland by the tsunami.

"I can tell visitors what happened in detail during the tsunami because I experienced it myself. I also make a decent living working here," Suhada says.

The December 26, 2004 tsunami, triggered by an earthquake off Sumatra, killed about 170,000 people in Aceh and devastated 800 kilometres of coastline.

Today, the provincial capital Banda Aceh is a bustling city, with new buildings including a city hall, hotels and shopping centres having emerged from the ruins.

The four-storey Aceh Tsunami Museum, built in 2009, is a symbolic reminder of the disaster, its roof resembling a high wave.

The response to the disaster has been touted as an example of successful international co-operation.

Since the tsunami, more than 130,000 houses, 250 kilometres of roads, 18 hospitals and other infrastructure have been built, according to the government.

More than 80,000 hectares of agricultural land has been rehabilitated or cleared for use and 15,000 hectares of fish ponds have been created.

The tsunami also prompted the Indonesian government to take steps to boost disaster preparedness.

"Since the tsunami, there has been tremendous increase in our capacity to deal with disasters," says Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, which was set up after the tsunami.

The annual budget for disaster control has increased tenfold since five years ago, from 300 billion rupiah (NZ$30 million) to three trillion rupiah.

An advanced tsunami warning system, built with assistance from the German government, can issue an alert less than five minutes after an earthquake and regular tsunami drills are conducted on Sumatra.

But things have improved little for some survivors. Twenty families remain in temporary shelters in Banda Aceh's coastal village of Ulee Lheue because they did not get permanent housing.

"No one cares for us even though we were victims of the tsunami," says Burhan, one fisherman who has lived in a wooden shack since his village was obliterated.

"We were supposed to get new houses but other people took them away from us. So we ended up here."

- AFP