ACEH, INDONESIA
Driving around Banda Aceh's waterfront almost one year after the tsunami, it is tempting to conclude that not a lot has been achieved. Shattered buildings still dot the barren landscape and there are only a few pockets of civilisation in evidence.
Where are the 20,000 houses that were supposed to be built? Where is the reconstruction? Where is all the money going?
It is only by sitting down with people involved in the recovery effort that the reason for the lack of new houses or rebuilt villages becomes clear. They are only rebuilding houses where there are people left alive.
But the reconstruction of Aceh is about much more than just houses. Indeed, there are a lot of houses sitting empty, even while 67,000 people still live in tents, because whoever built them forgot to ask people what they wanted, or neglected all the other things that make a house more than a box with a pointy roof. Things like plumbing, running water, electricity or sewerage.
All down the coast, those services have been destroyed, along with most other infrastructure, public and private. So complex is the task of reconstruction that the Indonesian government has established a department to oversee and co-ordinate the effort. The Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) came into being in April.
Its arrival has heralded a more co-ordinated approach, one its deputy chief Said Faisal hopes will deliver to the people of Aceh a province in better condition than it was before the waves. 'The challenge is very complex,' says Mr Faisal. 'It's not just rehabilitation and reconstruction but also the cultural issues we have to manage.'