Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Indonesia

Introduction

‘Build Aceh back better’

 

The epicentre of the Indian Ocean earthquakes and tsunami (henceforth referred to as the tsunami) on 26 December 2004, or in the Islamic calendar on the 13 Dhū al-Qi'da 1425H, was 100 kilometres off the coast of the province of Aceh,¹ in Indonesia (see the map in Figure 0.1). The earthquakes and the tsunami killed over 200,000 people and displaced over a million people in six countries in South and South-East Asia and the north-eastern coast of Africa: India; Indonesia; Maldives; Sri Lanka; Thailand; and Somalia.

The worst-hit area was Aceh, a special autonomous region of Indonesia, which had already suffered from nearly three decades of armed conflict. The earthquakes and the tsunami had devastating results ...