Aceh and Nias, Indonesia post-tsunami reconstruction by survivor participation

The earthquake of 26 December 2004 off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, resulted in a tsunami that killed some 300 000 people and damaged farmland and irrigation systems and hence the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. A further earthquake on 28 March 2005 killed 1000 people in Nias and damaged irrigation systems throughout the island. In August 2005, a design team was engaged by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist the Indonesian government’s Bureau of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (BRR) to re-establish the irrigation infrastructure and management as a component of the ADB-grant-funded Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Project. A participatory approach was taken by the design team through planning to construction by empowering survivors to form water user associations (WUAs), involving them in the planning process, training them in construction techniques and, through WUA-managed contracts, supporting them to rebuild their secondary and tertiary systems. During the project, the design engineers followed the BRR policy of ‘building back better’ by incorporating earthquake-resistant design in the higher-risk areas. This paper describes the participatory approach taken to restore some 93 irrigation systems over some 60 000 ha.