Lessons shared on disaster recovery at int'l workshop

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Three years after the Boxing Day tsunami, experts from Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka met on Monday to share lessons learned from recovery efforts in post-disaster areas.

C.V. Sankar, the officer on special duty from the government of Tamil Nadu in India, said the country should learn more from Indonesia's State Ministry for Women's Empowerment in addressing the "women-centric" issues of disaster recovery.

"For example, we distributed saris to women in Tamil Nadu, but they stepped forward and asked for curides, a more modern outfit that they preferred to wear," Sankar said.

He was speaking on the first day of a two-day workshop, which has been organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare.

Sankar said the government incorporated recommendations from the community and non-governmental organizations in reconstructing damaged and poorly constructed houses using disaster resistant features.

When the tsunami hit Tamil Nadu in 2004, affecting 238 villages in 13 districts, almost 8,000 people were killed and 223 children were orphaned.

"What was most difficult was addressing the psychological trauma of the victims," Sankur said.

"We trained teachers and community workers to better conduct the consultations needed to resolve their traumas."

Tamil Nadu lies on the eastern coast at the tip of the Indian sub-continent.

It is the sixth most populous state in India.

Ananda Mallawatantri, the assistant resident representative for UNDP in Sri Lanka, said too much consultation with international donors and other parties was leading to an unhealthy dependence on foreign aid.

"After the tsunami, we prepared the Disaster Management Act in 2005, followed by the establishment of the Disaster Management Centre and the Ministry," Ananda said.

He said procedural issues, including customs and duty, were causing delays in the recovery process.

"We conducted rapid assessments, but decided to take our time in the recovery process," Ananda said.

"Putting everything into practice was the most difficult aspect."

He said the country's preparedness for natural disasters had improved significantly after the 2004 tsunami.

Budhy Andono, assistant deputy for natural disasters at the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare, said there was a complicated line of bureaucracy involved in Indonesia's responses to natural disasters.

"Indonesia is a country prone to many natural disasters, like forest fires, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, floods and tsunamis," Budhy said.

"So we know that the recovery process is not easy."

UNDP identified eight main problems in its preliminary findings on the recovery process in Indonesia, which included weak coordination between the central government and regional administrations, unclear financial mechanisms and weaknesses in collecting and verifying information on victims. (lva)