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After Mistakes, Home Construction On Track In Aceh: WBank
Singapore (AFP) Dec 14, 2005 The construction of permanent homes for victims of a devastating tsunami in Indonesia's Aceh province is proceeding well after early mistakes in the reconstruction effort, the World Bank said Wednesday. "Are we happy with the progress in Aceh? No we are not, at all. There are still 60,000 people in tents today and that's clearly unacceptable a year after the tsunami," Andrew Steer, the World Bank's Indonesia country director, told reporters. "The mistake that was made was not paying enough attention to temporary housing," Steer said ahead of the December 26 first anniversary of the disaster which left almost 170,000 Acehnese dead or missing and half a million homeless. Critics have charged that reconstruction has been too slow. Steer said relief officials should have realized that it would be impossible to build more than 30,000 houses in the first year and that, as a result, many survivors would be left staying in tents. There were also hopes that more of the homeless would have been able to stay with host families, he said. Of the 500,000 people forced from their homes by the tsunami, 180,000 still regard themselves as internally displaced. That figure is about evenly split between those staying in tents, in barrack-style accommodation, or with host families, he said. But a program to provide permanent housing for the tsunami victims is on course. "We're now moving into the really big permanent housing phase," Steer said. About 25,000 houses will be finished by the first anniversary of the disaster, with 5,000 being started and completed every month. "Throughout 2006 the hope is to finish another 70,000 houses and that will mean that everybody will be in their permanent houses by the middle of 2007. If that is achieved it will be a remarkable performance," he said. Aceh was the area worst-hit by the tsunamis which struck 11 Indian Ocean countries. By the first anniversary of the tragedy, about one-fifth of the 1.8 million people around the region made homeless by the waves will be in permanent homes, the aid organization Oxfam said in a report Wednesday. Steer said Aceh needs almost six billion dollars to replace its lost assets but nine billion dollars has been pledged by donors, governments and non-governmental organizations. "Never before has such an amount been pledged," he said. Overall, reconstruction one year after the Aceh tsunami is "better than average" compared with disasters in other countries, Steer said.
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Swiss Re Says 'Significant Lessons' For Insurers After US Hurricanes
London (AFP) Dec 14, 2005Swiss Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, said here Wednesday the world's insurance industry had "significant lessons" to learn following recent US hurricanes. |
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