Tsunami: Six Months After

June 2005—Six months have passed since the tsunami devastated the coasts of the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, decimating villages and towns and leaving survivors homeless. Find out how people's lives have changed and how challenging it has been to rebuild their homes and their lives.

Over the past six months, the World Bank alone has committed more than US$835 million to help reconstruct devastated communities. But the needs are much greater. According to estimates, India alone will need some US$1.2 billion for reconstruction.

Mohammed's Story: The Journey Since December

Meet Mohammed Nazeer and learn how his life has changed since the tsunami in December 2004 by viewing the audio and photo gallery about him

Pamanji's Story: Back on the Sea in Andhra Pradesh

In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh it was crucial for fishermen to quickly return to the sea. It is their livelihood.

Pamanji Yadagiri's boat had been badly damaged after being repeatedly dashed against a palm tree during the tsunami.

But with the funds he received soon after the disaster, he quickly managed to repair his boat. Pamanji and his three sons returned to the sea within two months, and were able to take advantage of the peak fishing season, which lasts from February to April.

Pamanji was glad to have been able to go fishing so soon because any delay in setting out to sea would have hit the family extremely hard.

Pamanji credits the village organizations and women's self help groups which came to the family's aid, even before government relief could reach them. These groups have strong local networks and managed to reach out to every fishing family in the shortest possible time.

These groups are made up of villagers like himself. They counseled the families and helped them assess what they needed to resume their livelihoods.

This was the first time the community's needs were considered when rehabilitation plans were being drawn. The women's self help groups and village organizations made a detailed list of what each family had lost. These lists then helped the district government direct relief work.

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Lia's Story: Tsunami Victim Becomes an Activist in Banda Aceh

Lia Gho Siu Ching was away visiting her sick mother in Jakarta, when the massive tsunami waves engulfed her village in Banda Aceh.

She returned three days later to a scene of utter devastation: Debris buried roads and houses. Electricity and water supply were cut off. A boat, washed ashore by the giant waves, exploded and caused a fire, burning down 45 homes and part of a mosque. Flies hovered around rotten bodies.

All of Lia's family members survived, but their house was badly damaged. It took a month to clear the debris from it.

Lia became very active in helping the village recover. She helped clear ditches and even went door to door offering well-cleaning for free. Aware of people's need for food, Lia also approached non-government organizations (NGOs) for food items for the victims of the tsunami.

Today, Lia's home serves as a bread-collection center, where a Turkish NGO delivers 600 loaves of bread each day to feed some 180 families in the neighborhood.

The neighbors also encouraged Lia to join the Kerap—an elected local committee that handles and monitors the reconstruction funds under the World Bank's Urban Poverty Project.

"People trust me, so I can't refuse them. I've only received high school education; I'm not a leader, just a helper. I'm not working so I have time to help," Lia says.

As a Kerap member, Lia helps with land mapping training and organizes mapping sessions in her village. These sessions are vital. One of the key problems in the reconstruction process is that many of the original land legal rights documents have been destroyed and the boundaries of land ownership are no longer clear.

Akkamma's Story: How Close to the Sea Is Safe in Tamil Nadu?

Akkamma sighs as she looks at neat row of corrugated sheet shelters that stand sentinel beside the quiet waters of the Bay of Bengal.

The killer tsunami waves had destroyed everything in her small fishing community in India's state of Tamil Nadu, which had borne the brunt of the disaster in the country.

As the elected head of the village panchayat (council), it was Akkamma's responsibility to count the dead and help distribute food and kerosene oil among those who survived. Now Akkamma must help her small and hardy community to rebuild their shattered lives.

Before the tsunami, Akkama's village was a bustling cluster of palm-thatched houses not far above the high-tide line. Like most fishing villages, it was built before the notification of the Coastal Regulation Zone in 1991, which prohibited construction close to the sea.

But, the fisher folk continued to live there as the short distance to the ocean made it easy to drag their boats out before dawn and haul in the catch when the day was done. But on that day in December, this proximity to the water was fateful.

Those who lost their homes will get new houses, outside the Coastal Regulation Zone at a safe distance from the shore.But before reconstruction begins several issues must be solved: the fisher folk's need to be near the ocean has to be weighed against their safety.

People don't own their houses, but ownership rights have been traditionally decided by the community, and houses nearer the ocean are more valued than those further away.

For reconstruction to succeed, the government and local communities must decide together how to proceed with house building. And it will be up to Akkama and her panchayat members to help their people decide how to proceed in rebuilding their homes and their lives.

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