Better coordination needed in Tsunami-affected Indonesia

(New York, 17 October 2005): Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has concluded his mission to tsunami-affected Indonesia, having witnessed for himself the situation on the ground along affected coastlines, including in Calang.
Commenting upon the massive relief efforts that followed the destruction of last 26 December, he said that the people of Aceh, other Indonesians and internationals had done well during the emergency phase. "We have been feeding more or less everybody who is in need. We provided medical assistance; we provided water; and we provided sanitation in very difficult circumstances. We feel like we can be proud of what we did achieve in the emergency phase."

However, he also noted, the reconstruction has gone slower than hoped and the belief that it would be possible to provide permanent housing before the current rainy season was a miscalculation. Too few are in permanent housing with the rains now starting.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator underscored the need for more and better coordination to ensure that the people of Aceh are able to move into permanent houses before the next rainy season. "It is not acceptable that many organizations do their own small projects without coordinating with anybody else," he stressed.

To that end, he noted, the United Nations has put in place a strong Recovery Coordinator, Eric Morris, who has been in charge of developing a six-month transitional and permanent shelter plan.

The plan aims to have all people out of tents, more than 100,000 into new transitional shelter and tens of thousands of new permanent houses built within six months, with the ultimate goal of getting inhabitants into permanent houses before the next rainy season.

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA NY, 917 367 5126, mobile 917 892 1679; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, 41 22 917 2653, mobile 41(0) 79 473 4570.