JITR(Japan Institute of Tourism Research)-Tohoku

Notwithstanding, the Indian Ocean Tsunami 26
December 2004 (also known as Aceh Tsunami) which
massively devastated the people both physically andmentally and destroyed the environment drasticallywere not acknowledged by the people in Banda Aceh.
There were 61,065 people missing and dead becauseof the tragedy. Looking at many victims of the tsunami,
it could be because of several factors including it being
the closest area to the epicenter, no early warning
system, lack of information about tsunami, and poordisaster management in Indonesia at that time. The lossof the family members resulted in the deepest sorrowand trauma. Therefore, after the disaster, many
rehabilitation and reconstruction programs have been
implemented by Aceh local government and Indonesian
government with the help of the international
community.

日本観光研究学会東北支部 Newsletter

東北 紀行
Tohoku Travelogue
第 41 号/2022 年 1 月/編集：丸岡泰(石巻専修大学)

The Indian Ocean Tsunami
Disaster, its Reconstruction
Programs and the Current Stateof Recovery
The Case of Banda Aceh City
Muzailin Affan, Ph.D., Syiah Kuala University

In addition, the majority of Acehnese population areMuslims who believe that disaster is a kind of warningfrom God. The people can accept that this disaster wasa warning to do better in the future, it was a destiny
that must be accepted. Given the religion viewpoint,
Acehnese people tend to easily adapt to it, and there
was no suicide or long frustration.

Tsunami is a natural hazard which is unpredictableand powerful enough to cause devastating impacts. On
26 December 2004, Aceh was hit by tsunami which
was generated by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake makingit a memorial event for Acehnese people, especiallypeople who lived in Banda Aceh City. Tsunami almost
destroyed all the places in Banda Aceh which the wave
reached, approximately 5 km from the coastal area.
Sadly, most of the people who suffered andexperienced the tsunami in Banda Aceh did not know
about what happened at that time. The people barely
knew about the big wave from the ocean calledtsunami.

Meanwhile, the huge damage to the infrastructure
made it very difficult to restore to the original situation.
The destruction of the tsunami was massive, manybuildings were destroyed including, 21,751 house units,
169 units of education, 25 units of health (hospital andclinic), 302 km roads, 63 units of government offices,
9 units of market buildings, and 46 social facilities.
However, with the support from different sectors, thereconstruction was progressively enforced. The
settlement area and vegetation were started fromzero. Step by step, the settlement area has been
restored to the original situation as before tsunami, andthere was some increase in the demand of developmentof the area (295 Ha to 335 Ha).

Actually, research conducted in 2005 in a cave called
Gua Ek Luntie discovered that a tsunami occurred
7,400 years ago. On 4 January 1907, a big tsunami
occurred and destroyed Simeulue Island of Aceh andcaused the death of 70% of the total population in thisisland. The survivors recorded their experiences as anoral story and passed those to the next generation
through buai-buai (lullaby) in family daily lives, nafi-nafi(advice) from old generation to the youth and throughtraditional poems and songs called Nandong that areperformed in communal events in Simeulue. In themainland Aceh, a folklore known as hikayat about “bigwave”, was documented and local people call it “ieBeuna”.

In addition, to recover from a disaster, there areseveral strategies and goals that we can implement.
For instance, (1) to restore the community to theconditions existing before the disaster or better, (2) toreturn to a condition where the situation is consideredstable, (3) to imagine what the community might havebecome should the disaster have not happened-1-JITR(Japan Institute of Tourism Research)-Tohokuincluding its economic and demographic evolution, (4)recovery is seen as the development of social fabrics,
political systems and the economic activities in orderto anticipate the disaster risk faced by the society.

in 2009, the business center was moved outside thetsunami affected area.
Besides, in the sector of education, Banda Aceh city
together with Universitas Syiah Kuala has developed
11 model schools for disaster preparedness. Banda
Aceh City has improved the curricula and has been
conducting regular activities related to disasterawareness education for some elementary and juniorhigh schools. Besides, with the support from BNPB
(National agency for disaster management) BandaAceh City has established a new tsunami evacuation
plan and made a disaster hazard map for the whole city.

To date, it is needed to find a balance between speed
and quality of recovery. The consideration of theaffected population's needs and recover quickly must
be taken into account. Hence, it is essential to build asustainable society for future generations (Gardoni andMurphy, 2008). Besides, the economic recovery is very
comprehensive, the land and building tax show how thetsunami affected area has recovered from the loss of
infrastructure especially land value and building. After
reconstruction of building, the tax will be associatedwith the land and building. As a result, coming fromthose ideas, the reconstruction and recovery from thetsunami should be carefully considered in terms of how
to implement them and tackle the problems.

There are several activities implemented at school,
university and in the community including disaster
preparedness school, tsunami evacuation drill at school,
annual conference and publications on DRR, community
based DRR campaign, establishing tsunami and disastermitigation research center, establishing disastersciences master degree, establishing resilient villages,
tsunami evacuation drill in community, DRR competitionat school level, and other efforts to improve awarenessand the quality of life for the people of Banda Aceh.

In short, the recovery of housing for tsunami
survivor was started in May 2005 and led by NGOS
and followed by BRR (Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Agency). The housing reconstruction plan by BRR inone village in Banda Aceh City namely Alue DeahTengoh Village was completed in 30 months after
disaster (mid 2007), 30% by the end of 2005 and 90%
by the end of 2006. It was done due to sponsorship bymany donors from different organizations. Somedonors were quick to disburse the allocated fundresulting in the provision of houses quickly and with theleast amount of effort. However, there were limitations
due to lack of materials and limited labor.

To sum up, the Aceh Tsunami was a memorable
event that Acehnese people cannot forget. However,with support from many sectors, the people in Banda
Aceh city have progressively moved forward to build
their stability mentally to support the development ofthemselves and the place where they live. Besides, thecity has been progressively restored to the condition
before the tsunami and even better condition right now.
The government is still planning to build and create thecity as a comfortable city to live and to visit byimplementing more hazard signs for evacuation routes,
entertainment from the remains of tsunami like building
remains sites and museum and educational programs
like doing a drill at school and conducting more research
related to the tsunami. As a result, joint research andcooperation in close partnership between Aceh andJapan is needed to further study about reconstruction
and recovery programs in order to have a positive longterm impact.

Housing reconstruction is the main mandate ofreconstruction program and almost 50% of recovery
budget was used for housing reconstruction (RANDatabase, 2009). One of the issues on long term
recovery is housing reconstruction with permanenthouses. Besides, competition among NGOs to support
the affected areas is encouraged. However, there weresome changes of the regulation (spatial planning) due
to recovery process. It is demonstrated that in 2006
the temporary settlement area was changed in 2009
to permanent settlement due to survivors returning andbuilding their home and village, mostly fishermen or
fishpond farmers. As a result, it can be identified that

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