The Australian Government’s Response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami

Disasters, natural or man made, will always alter prevailing physical, social, and political environments. They test the available resources, challenge attitudes, and change people’s personal reference points. The effects of disasters are compounded in countries where poverty is widespread, and in countries with a history of under-development or armed conflict. In this article I track Australia’s response to the tsunami and look at lessons learned in the delivery of aid and longer-term reconstruction.

The Indian Ocean Tsunami

The Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 was the worst natural disaster of modern times. More than 181,000 people died and more than 45,000 are still missing. The death toll was highest in Indonesia where 127,000 people lost their lives. Across the tsunami trail, in just hours, 1.5 million people were suddenly made homeless. Livelihoods disappeared and the natural environment was altered dramatically, in parts beyond recognition.

The Australian Government’s Response

The Australian Government responded quickly and decisively providing varying forms of assistance to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Seychelles, and to a lesser extent Thailand and India. Our emergency assistance totalled A$68 million (U.S.$50 million). Once people’s immediate needs were met, Australia turned its attention to longer-term assistance and reconstruction.

In the days following the tsunami, Australia, led by the Australian Government aid agency, AusAID, funded or sent to Indonesia, food, water, school materials, and household items such as mosquito nets, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, blankets, and plastic sheeting to help thousands of people with immediate practical assistance.

In Sri Lanka we built hundreds of temporary houses, funded the training of community health promoters and volunteers, and provided trauma counselling and psychological support. We sent pharmaceuticals and funded play equipment for children. We teamed up with local authorities to build latrines, and drained and treated household wells with chlorine.
Once these basics were in place, Australia began working with international agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs) and the Sri Lanka Government to re-build livelihoods, getting people, particularly fishers, back to work.

To the Maldives we sent a 17-member medical team to treat people injured in the tsunami, and delivered critical medical supplies. Through partner organisations we provided medical supplies, water and sanitation materials, generators, and corrugated roofing. AusAID deployed marine scientists to help assess damage to the coral reefs and ecosystems — so important to the tourism industry in the Maldives. Teachers were sent to assist in classrooms, and engineers to assess buildings for structural damage. The Maldives is now implementing a national recovery plan to revive livelihoods and the wider economy, and to restore infrastructure.
Australian assistance to the Seychelles, India, and Thailand included assessing fisheries, and providing medical assistance, temporary shelter, and household goods. AusAID is funding an 18-month program to improve Thailand’s capacity to manage coastal zones for aquaculture and tourism.
Australia did not act in isolation. It worked closely with partner governments and non-government organisations to provide the most appropriate aid in the most efficient manner. I am certain our early, rapid response helped save many people who would have otherwise died from injuries received in the tsunami or from disease.

Reconstruction after an event of such magnitude does not happen overnight. It is a long-term proposition in which care must be taken so that assistance is appropriate and that aid does not do more harm than good. Disasters can draw people together. However they can also accentuate pre-existing tensions. In the case of Sri Lanka, communities affected by the conflict and not the tsunami were not eligible for the same sort of assistance offered to tsunami-affected communities. Tensions increased in some communities.
Once this problem was recognized by Sri Lankan officials and international donors, assistance programs were adjusted. For instance, Australia provided $7 million in 2005 through community development programs in areas affected by the conflict and for mine action.

The Australia Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development

The Australian Government has focussed its relief and reconstruction efforts on Indonesia because of the sheer size of the destruction to parts of the country, especially the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. The damage to Aceh was vicious. The force of the water dragged away just about everything in its path. Concrete bridges, roads, and buildings were tossed around like toys. People, animals, trees, and vegetation stood little chance.

Staff from AusAID were among the first people into the province after the disaster struck. They are still there — implementing the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development. The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, and the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, announced this A$1 billion (US$733 million) program on 5 January 2005 — very soon after the tsunami struck. It is Australia’s largest-ever foreign aid commitment and will be in place for five years.

Within the A$1 billion partnership, half the funding is grant aid and the remainder is in the form of highly concessional loans. These loans will attract a zero interest rate and will have a repayment period of 40 years.

The Partnership is managed by a Joint Commission that comprises the Australian and Indonesian foreign and economic ministries. While there is a clear focus on tsunami-affected areas, it is open to all parts of Indonesia. It includes assistance in health, education and training, improved governance, emergency preparedness and response, infrastructure development, rural productivity, and private sector development.

The package is very significant for Indonesia. It is also the first time that Australia has played a significant donor role in a large developing country. We are generally known as a major player in development assistance in Papua New Guinea, the South Pacific, and East Timor. The combination of the A$1 billion Partnership package and the annual regular aid program with Indonesia (estimated at approximately A$160 million [US$117 million] during 2005-06) now places Australia as one of Indonesia’s main donors coming second to Japan and in the same league as Germany and the United States. Australia’s total aid flowing to Indonesia over the five years of the Partnership will be almost A$2 billion (US$1.5 billion).

By December 2005 almost $950 million committed under the Partnership had been committed for rehabilitation and reconstruction in Aceh but also for longer-term activities which have wider application across Indonesia and are in line with the Indonesian Government’s emphasis on economic and social development.

The concessional loan program will help the country build up its infrastructure, including improving roads in Eastern Indonesia to support regional and economic development.

Funding will also be available to help improve teacher training, and provide better school materials and buildings in state and Islamic schools around the country, including Aceh.

Under the grant aid, up to 600 post-graduate scholarships will be awarded to Indonesians to study at Australian institutions.

The Partnership also paves the way for greater exchange between Indonesian and Australian public servants to strengthen Indonesia’s institutions. Improved governance is a priority for the Indonesian Government as it seeks to reform its economy and bring about greater transparency and accountability. It is also a major priority for the Australian aid program generally — strong and accountable public institutions underpin advances in development. Little is gained from implementing programs if the institutions that support them are weak or burdened by corruption or poor management.

Aceh

As mentioned previously, it was in Aceh that the tsunami’s full fury was vented. The damage was immense. That anyone managed to survive at all or that any structures were left standing is a wonder. The memory of so much death and destruction continues to haunt people. There is still much grief and for some the losses are so deep they will never overcome the memory of that day in December. But the Acehnese are a courageous and resilient people, committed to reconstructing something resembling a normal life. I am pleased to say Australian aid has been used to help people with this difficult task — first by providing emergency relief such as clean water and food and then turning to longer-term rebuilding. Australia has also provided technical and financial support to repair, renovate, or reconstruct vital community infrastructure – not only for the physical reconstruction of schools, health facilities, community halls, and the major provincial port, but also to restore shrimp hatcheries and the fishing industry, rebuild Aceh’s human resource base in areas such as skilling up health workers, supporting teacher training, and helping to restore local government services.

It has been important for the Partnership to avoid duplicating the work already being done by other government aid agencies and non-government organisations. This does not mean we have excluded ourselves from working with other countries and donors. Not at all. In fact, Australia is working with many organisations to build up the education sector in Aceh and is partnering with Germany to share the task of rehabilitating Banda Aceh’s main hospital. Equipment has been replaced and buildings have been painted. Nurses and other staff are being trained to run the hospital, which lost so many of its workers in the tsunami.

Australia is also helping the people of Banda Aceh to reconstruct their villages by funding the building of village halls. Previous buildings were washed away. In some areas a village hall is the only place where people can gather and conduct business of any kind. It is a meeting place, a forum to make important village decisions and from which local government can begin to deliver important community services. This is something taken so easily for granted but without which it is very hard to rebuild communities. Over time Australia will fund the construction of 180 village halls and 17 sub-district offices in three districts of Aceh.

Australia is also playing a major part in the restoration of property boundaries and land titles as a precursor to re-building homes. Many formal records were lost in the tsunami, including those documenting the ownership of property. People cannot be sure where their homes and other buildings stood because familiar landmarks such as houses, roads, and bridges have been washed away. In many cases people may not have even had a formal title to their land, or were long-term tenants. These problems are compounded by land subsidence in some areas or land that is no longer suitable for re-building. Thus Australian advisers are working with communities through the long and detailed consultation process to develop agreed boundaries to people’s parcels of land. To date, 75 land mappers funded and trained through the Partnership have completed 68 maps covering more than 15,000 parcels of land. The maps are then passed to the community, the provincial government, and other donors who require the information to commence construction of dwellings. The provincial government has endorsed the community land mapping process and adopted it as its own.

It is important that land mapping is done properly to avoid disputes over land ownership in years to come. This is the last thing people who have been so traumatised need, and it would slow down reconstruction and development.

Lessons Learned

The Indian Ocean tsunami threw many challenges at the affected communities, their governments, and the international community that responded. The collective effort of the response was magnificent. Nevertheless, from the Australian perspective, a number of lessons were identified and we are applying these to our ongoing disaster preparedness.

Seismic events will happen, and while science can do more to forecast their likelihood, their impacts will be significant. The movement of the earth’s plates will continue to occur with associated seismic activity.  Australia will strengthen its science to predict, monitor and respond to these inevitable seismic events.  Some of these events will have significant impacts on populations.  In light of this, Australia will continue to expand its capability to respond to seismic events and to build resilience in the countries and communities of the Asia Pacific region.

The task of awareness-raising and disaster preparedness must be ongoing. No matter how much work is undertaken, it is folly to assume we are fully prepared for all eventualities. Australia adopts an all-hazards approach, which includes raising awareness and increasing preparedness.  We are careful not to claim that we are fully prepared for any emergency. To do so would be to generate a false sense of security.  An all-hazards approach, flexible systems, back-up plans, and on-going rehearsals and refining of plans are required. 

The twin goals in disaster response of saving lives and restoring human dignity are best accomplished by re-establishing local systems and capacities and not imposing an external set of conditions. Disaster and crisis response must be led by national (not donor) priorities and work to re-establish national systems. External innovations can be taken up, but their acceptance must be nationally driven – not imposed externally. 

We must remember to work with national coordination staff in affected countries to ensure that they maintain control and do not feel disempowered. It is important and requires discipline to take the time to work with national authorities while responding to a crisis. National authorities must be included to provide a national perspective, to set priorities and to own the response.  Involving national authorities also enables them to keep their communities informed about the response and to assist in managing expectations. 
The Australian Government’s tsunami response benefited greatly from coherent planning, tasking, and implementation by military, civilian, private sector, and NGOs.

Instantaneous communication, strong public interest in accountability of public funds, and the need to maximise effectiveness have been the drivers to strengthen the coordination and coherence of Australian crisis response.  Outside a crisis, aid officials, military planners, key contractors, and NGOs meet to build understanding and to agree on ways of cooperating.  If you are not ‘joined-up’ outside of a crisis, it is almost impossible to be ‘joined-up’ during one.

Joint military and civil planning exercises are invaluable preparation to a coordinated and complementary performance in a crisis. While there remain important challenges to joint civil and military action in disaster response, such deployment is an expanding reality.  The military is often best-placed as first responders, particularly where basic services and/or security are compromised.  Civil aid workers need to understand the strengths and limitations of the military response. In turn, the military would benefit from a longer-term and shared perspective.  Joint planning and exercises are some of the ways to build understanding and to generate mutually supportive response options. 

High-profile media coverage of international crises will generate energy in civil society ‘to do something’. It is important that Government and NGOs communicate quickly and regularly to their donor community the importance of appropriate assistance, delivered by qualified and accredited professionals. It continues to be the responsibility of aid professionals – in government and in NGOs – to advance clear and timely messages on a response to a disaster.  Understandably, the public will demand that ‘something is done’ when faced with crisis images. 
AusAID works hard to inform media and the public before events such as the annual Pacific cyclone season of what we will try to do and what we cannot address. During a crisis we articulate our overall objective and have one authoritative point to focus upon for briefing and media messages.

The Future

The Indian Ocean tsunami dealt a very cruel blow to many countries. There is sometimes criticism that not much appears to have happened in the intervening months. This criticism reflects a lack of understanding of the very complex nature of reconstruction and development assistance. Even in Australia, with every modern convenience, recovery from cyclones and bushfires can take months and even years. After Cyclone Tracey the first new house was not built until nine months later. Nearly three years after the Canberra bushfires there are still houses being constructed. This task is so much more difficult
in developing countries where even basic equipment may be in very short supply.

The Australian Government appreciates the challenges ahead for all the countries affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami. It has shown its understanding by offering support and high quality assistance – a long-term commitment. With Indonesia in particular, it will continue to help Aceh recover, to rebuild the tangible while at the same time offer support and encouragement to people dealing with layers of memories and levels of grief that can be neither seen nor measured.