Reconstruction transforms Nias, but concern remains

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Seven years after an 8.7-magnitude earthquake devastated Nias in March 2005, claiming over 1,300 lives and obliterating much of its infrastructure, many positive changes have come to the small island off the northwest coast of Sumatra. And while reconstruction efforts and aid money that poured in from international donors are most evident in the capital, a number of suspension bridges have greatly improved the lives of rural communities.

One example is the Gido River bridge, a 64.6m-long, steel-enforced structure that has changed the lives of some 3,000 people. Completed in September 2010, the bridge was a collaboration between local communities and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Residents of villages on either side of the river now use the bridge, which replaced a dangerously worn-out one, to access rubber plantations, shop in nearby districts and to go to school.

Before it was built, local schoolchildren waded through the river on their way to school. But they could only do so when the river was shallow – a minority of the time, since it rains on average 240 days a year in Nias. Now they can go to school year-round.

Mazdan al Mahdali, who heads the Nias Public Works Agency, said infrastructure work done following the quake has changed Nias completely.

"It would have been an enormous strain and taken so much time had we done things alone, since our budget, know-how, and facilities are restricted. We are thankful to all international organisations that came to our aid," Mazdan said.

Under the auspices of the ILO, the $16m Nias Islands Rural Access and Capacity Building Project focused on construction work for 1.2km of bridges and 75km of trails.

For construction of the Gido bridge, the ILO sought assistance from the Nepal programme of Helvetas, an international NGO specialising in construction of train suspension bridges, to create designs and identify materials suitable to the topography and climate conditions of Nias.

Designers also came up with a breakthrough proposal of building roads 1.5m wide, where the difficult terrain made the more standard width of 3m impractical.

Despite the progress, infrastructure assistance remains a crucial need in Nias, according to Nuzlan Hia, chief of the Road and Bridge Planning Division of the Nias Public Works Agency.

"We need more access paths like suspension bridges, which could be used for public services," Nuzlan said, pointing out that even with all the bridges built to date, 49 villages still can't be accessed by car.

Agustinus Zega, head of the Nias Investment and Development Planning Board, said the construction of suspension bridges like the Gido Bridge involved local communities throughout the process – from construction of the foundation to procurement of cement and tools.

He added that the Indonesian Regional Planning and Development Board (Badan Perencanaan dan Pembangunan Nasional/Bappeda) was grateful to international organisations that worked to make inroads into isolated villages, but more help was needed.

"This was great for two-wheeled vehicles and opened up areas that had been isolated. Still, three main cities in Nias are isolated from real urban development," Agustinus said, referring to the narrow roads the international design partners pioneered.

Agustinus compared Nias to Aceh, decimated by the 2004 tsunami generated by a 9.1-magnitude quake. The March 2005 quake that hit Nias was one of its aftershocks.

Reconstruction work through international aid money saw huge, wide roads built in almost every major area across Aceh, including Sabang. Nias, in contrast, did not get similar results as most of the international assistance was directed only to Gunung Sitoli, he said.

source:http://khabarsouthasia.com