INDIA: Thousands still homeless after 2004 tsunami
Updated
It has been almost three years since the 2004 Asian Tsunami hit parts of India. While the reconstruction in going apace in Indonesia, thousands of tsunami victims from India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands are still living in temporary shelters as development efforts continue to be delayed by bureaucratic ineptitude, corruption and natural hurdles.
SAWLANI: India's Andaman and Nicobar Island region is home to one of the world's most unique ecosystem where local residents live in relative tranquillity. That is until the great Asian tsunami struck in December 2004.
Tsunami waves resulting from an earthquake in the Indian Ocean measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale left a devastating trail of destruction in a part of the world where victims of the disaster seemed to be forgotten. More than 3,500 people were killed and nearly 40,000 made homeless.
Although three years have since passed, plans to build 10,000 permanent houses have failed to reach fruition, as residents are still living in temporary shelters.
MALE: It's certainly difficult to see that people in such beautiful islands had been living to the good quality life before tsunami, have been living this shabby life in the shanty temporary shelters. So they are really in a bad shape.
SAWLANI: Harjeet Singh is the head of Action Aid India's tsunami response team, for Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He says that the delay in reconstruction efforts is primarily due to inappropriate strategies adopted by India's Central Government.
SINGH: It's basically a wrong strategy. When you have plenty of wood available in the islands and people have been living in the houses made of wood, you decide to have a structure which is Indian to the island and you promote a steel-based structure in which you have to do the entire sourcing of material from the mainland. That means we are increasing our dependency in terms of material on the mainland, so the cost is absolutely going to go up.
SAWLANI: Long time resident and member of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, Sami Acharya, adds that the delay in establishing sustainable homes for the tsunami victims is also due to the failure of India's Central Government in consulting with the regions people and representatives.
ACHARYA: The government, central government particularly needs to take the local people in confidence. It should be admitted that there is some brain and a lot of experience and information and knowledge available even outside the bureaucracy. I think that is the biggest problem. That is why inappropriate developments take place. The people who live here, they know where the shortage is. If you take them in confidence, a development will go in the right direction. If you fail to do that, you will never be able to address the problems.
SAWLANI: Action Aid India's Harjeet Singh, says that the cost of transport material from the mainland is another major factor that has led to exorbitant prices for homes meant for the tsunami victims. Each unit will now cost approximately 17,000 US dollars, which is five times higher than those built in India's southeastern state of Tamil Nadu, also affecting by the 2004 disaster.
SINGH: One certain factor is the transportation of materials from the mainland which is 1200 kilometres away from these islands. The time for bringing that material from the mainland is going to involve a lot of time, and finally the reconstruction process will be slow, because you have to transport this material from one point that is Port Blair which is the capital of the island to all different far flung islands. Whereas, wood is available on almost each islands, so you don't have to do much of transportation. The fact is that it is the wrong strategy.
SAWLANI: At the heart of the problem, Mr Singh says is corruption, where contractors are bribed to produce homes of a singular design.
SINGH: The entire reconstruction work has been given to two private companies. Now I don't think anywhere it could have happened when 10,000 houses of peoples from the full parts of India coming down and settling here are being given one single type of design, irrespective of their size, these are family size, and corporates are being given the responsibly to build their house without having any people's participation. One can easily award them contracts and there is certainly a scope of corruption.
SAWLANI: To make matters worse, the influx of mainland workers brought in by the contractors, according to local resident, Sami Acharya, are responsible for an escalation of social problems in the islands.
ACHARYA: That has caused another worry for us. It's a problem of influx. There is no regulation on people coming in and these contractors by the sheer weight of money, power and political influence, manage to get into these tribal areas, which are supposed to be protected and even I cannot go there without a permit. But these people are rich. There have been contract managers, they have taken the wife to the mainland and sold them to a brothel. There are even cases of introduction of drugs into this area, bootlegging and all because of these constructional experiences through contractors.
SAWLANI: Although construction efforts are progressing, Action Aid India's Harjeet Singh does not expect the already extended deadline of October 2008 to be met.
SINGH: It looks like that the islands where the transportation of the little area and now things have started moving on. One can easily see that it is going to go beyond 2009, so I think at least two more years to complete the entire process, and it can go even beyond that looking at the pace of work.
Presenter: Girish Sawlani
Speakers: Head of Action Aid India's Tsunami response team for Andaman and Nicobar island Harjeet Singh; Sami Acharya, local resident and member of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology
