UN starts to take over tsunami relief

The UN agency helping feed tsunami victims said today it was sending its first ship to deliver food to ravaged west coast areas in Indonesia’s Aceh province - a sign that civilian groups are preparing to fill the gap as foreign troops begin pulling out.

The World Food Programme shipment came on the same day that the Indonesian government said the emergency phase of Aceh relief operations is almost over, and that civilian aid workers should soon replace troops in delivering food and shelter to survivors.

“We are now opening up isolated areas through ground transportation, so we don’t need more helicopters,” said Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab. "We need more pick-ups to go all around isolated villages.”

Touring one of 50 sites where shelters are being built for 100,000 survivors, Shihab said it was “only logical” that the US, Singaporean and other foreign forces, who came in to help after the disaster, begin pulling out.

“The emergency stage is almost behind us, so the military will no longer give their contribution,” he said. “Civilians are more effective.”

Late last week, the US military said it would start scaling back its huge military contingent, based on ships off Sumatra island, where Aceh is located.

US helicopters have been vital in getting aid to remote towns and villages cut off when roads were torn up and bridges crushed by the December 26 earthquake and the giant waves it triggered.

Aid organisations responded to news of the US scale-back with disappointment, but pledged to shoulder a greater share of the relief burden.

A 400-tonne landing vessel carrying World Food Programme aid was due to arrive in Sumatra’s coastal Calang city for its first delivery, said program spokesman Gerald Bourke. Thousands of victims are at a makeshift camp among the ruins of the destroyed city.

Relief workers hope to leave Calang a one-month supply of rice, noodles, biscuits, fish and vegetable oil, Bourke said.

The World Food Programme also hopes to increase its helicopter fleet to 10 from the current two, Bourke said.

Meanwhile, Shihab said the first temporary housing sites – complete with a mosque, kitchens, schools and medical facilities – could be ready in a week. The government plans to build homes for 100,000 survivors on about 50 sites in the next two months.

The government expects people to remain in the camps for up to 18 months.

He said most of the 24 sites selected so far were on government-owned land across the province but that he had made a public plea for anyone with three hectares of land to come forward.

“We are ready to negotiate,” he said. “In a week, you’ll see a flood of people.”

Joel Boutroue, the head of the UN relief effort in Aceh, said the ongoing construction of semi-permanent homes around Banda Aceh showed the government was making progress.

“What we need to ensure is that community services are built,” he said. “That’s what will attract the people.”

However, some medical experts worried that some sites – including a partially flooded field on the outskirts of Banda Aceh – would expose survivors to diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

“We’re very concerned after looking at the first site,” said Dr Scott Smith of Mentor Initiative. “There is a lot of water there, a lot of concern about infectious diseases … We were hoping the houses would be built on higher ground and away from where mosquitos (breed).”

But along a raging river in the village of Bayut, the welcome sign was out. Villagers crowded around as Shihab and UN officials watched frames of homes go up where cows once grazed.

“The tsunami was a disaster, so we’re happy the survivors now will have a home,” said Nursimah, a mother who lives in the village.