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SINGAPORE: A big housing project in tsunami-hit Aceh is almost complete.
Habitat for Humanity, the group behind the massive effort, outlined the challenges faced, in a news conference in Singapore on Friday.
The non-governmental organisation (NGO) helped build 1,500 homes with a budget of S$18 million.
Close to 80 per cent (S$14m) of that rebuilding fund came from Singaporeans who donated to victims of the December 2004 tsunami.
The other S$4 million came from other Habitat offices around the world.
Each house has a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a toilet.
The building materials and labour cost about S$9,000.
Another S$2,000 was spent on staff and overheads, totalling about S$11,000."
The newly-built houses are meant for families who owned the same spot of land, before the tsunami.
And verifying this proved to be one of the greatest hurdles for Habitat for Humanity.
"The main challenges involved actually making sure people owned the land that they [were] in because after the disaster many people's work [was] gone, people were dead. So that took up a lot of time," says Yong Teck Meng, National Director, Habitat for Humanity, Singapore.
That is why the village chief, surviving neighbours and local authorities had to be roped in.
Each house took almost a month to build.
Teams of workers from Medan and Java were paid less than S$3,000 in stages, for each house.
Originally Habitat for Humanity wanted to build a simpler house, which meant residents would have to pay for additional fittings.
But the Indonesian government laid out requirements for all NGOs to follow.
"In the early stage the housing regulation was a bit fluctuating because they would say we want this size, and the size requirement changes and all that. And so, at the end we fixed into a final size of about 45 square metres per house. And that took quite a bit of time to arrive at," says Yong.
But it has met its target of building 1,500 homes by the end of this month.
And by then Habitat for Humanity says together with the Singapore Red Cross, it will assess if it has enough money from the Tsunami fund, to build an additional two to three hundred houses. - CNA/yy
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