The Asian Tsunami Aid and Reconstruction After a Disaster

26 December 2004 Over 220 000 men, women and children in poor countries in Asia were swept away in the great Asian tsunami of 2004. This book is dedicated to their memory. M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd ii 7/10/10 15:38:28 The Asian Tsunami Aid and Reconstruction after a Disaster Sisira Jayasuriya Professor of Economics, School of Economics and Finance, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia Peter McCawley College of Asia and the Pacifi c, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia In collaboration with Bhanupong Nidhiprabha, Budy P. Resosudarmo and Dushni Weerakoon A JOINT PUBLICATION OF THE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK INSTITUTE AND EDWARD ELGAR PUBLISHING Edward Elgar Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd iii 7/10/10 15:38:28 © Asian Development Bank Institute 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited The Lypiatts 15 Lansdown Road Cheltenham Glos GL50 2JA UK Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. William Pratt House 9 Dewey Court Northampton Massachusetts 01060 USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2010922139 ISBN 978 1 84844 692 2 Printed and bound by MPG Books Group, UK M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd iv 7/10/10 15:38:28 Contents List of contributors vi Foreword by Masahiro Kawai vii Preface ix List of abbreviations xii 1 The tsunami 1 2 Response to disaster: issues 12 3 The matter of money 40 4 Indonesia: the fi rst two years after the tsunami 68 5 Sri Lanka 123 6 Thailand 171 7 Conclusion 225 Index 261 v M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd v 7/10/10 15:38:28 Contributors Nisha Arunatilake is Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sisira Jayasuriya is Professor of Economics, School of Economics and Finance, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Peter McCawley is Visiting Fellow, Arndt- Corden Division of Economics, College of Asia and the Pacifi c, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia and was formerly Dean, ADB Institute, Tokyo. Suahasil Nazara is Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia, Depok, Jakarta, Indonesia. Bhanupong Nidhiprabha is Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. Budy P. Resosudarmo is Associate Professor, Arndt- Corden Division of Economics, College of Asia and the Pacifi c, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Paul Steele is Environment Advisor, Asia and Pacifi c Regional Centre, Bangkok, Thailand and was formerly Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dushni Weerakoon is Deputy Director, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka. vi M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd vi 7/10/10 15:38:28 Foreword Natural disasters of various kinds are an ever- present risk in most countries in Asia. It is usually the poor who are at highest risk, particularly in developing countries, because the places where the poor live and work tend to be especially vulnerable when disasters strike. In recent years, a number of megadisasters have struck the Asian region that have incurred very heavy costs in terms of human lives: the 2004 Asian tsunami (causing a loss of nearly 230 000 lives); cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008 (over 130 000 lives); the earthquake in Sichuan in the People’s Republic of China in 2008 (over 80 000 lives); and the earthquake in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan in 2005 (over 70 000 lives). In addition, there are numerous other natural disasters which are less serious in terms of human lives lost but which have high localized economic costs and disrupt the lives of millions of people: regular widespread fl ooding in major cities such as Jakarta and Manila and across Bangladesh, typhoons in the People’s Republic of China and Viet Nam, and severe droughts in India and Pakistan are but some examples. One of the consequences of the 2004 Asian tsunami was a sharply heightened awareness across developing countries in Asia of the need to give higher priority to disaster risk reduction programs across the region. Multilateral action has supported measures to give greater attention to disaster risk reduction issues at the national and local level. The Hyogo Framework for Action adopted in Kobe in early 2005 urged all countries to make major eff orts to reduce the risk of disasters by 2015. There was increased awareness of the need to pay attention to pre- disaster programs as well as strengthen capacity to respond in the post- disaster period. More recently, in 2009, the United Nations issued Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate, the fi rst biennial assessment of global disaster risk. This book is a study in the response to the largest natural disaster in Asia in recent history. The assistance provided by communities, governments, multilateral agencies, and non- government organizations following the Asian tsunami was an extraordinary humanitarian eff ort. It was also a very large aid program which involved thousands of diff erent organizations. Indeed, as a collective eff ort, it was one of the largest single aid eff orts that the international community has ever joined in for a natural disaster aff ecting developing countries. In looking to improve disaster risk vii M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd vii 7/10/10 15:38:28 viii Foreword reduction programs across Asia in the future, therefore, there are valuable lessons to be learnt from the experience of the regional reconstruction following the 2004 Asian tsunami. Through the production of studies of this kind, ADBI is committed to a program of research and capacity building that supports the Asian Development Bank’s overarching goal of promoting poverty reduction in the Asia- Pacifi c region. Masahiro Kawai Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd viii 7/10/10 15:38:28 Preface This book grew out of the idea that national researchers in Asia should be provided with an opportunity to critically examine the emergency relief humanitarian response and reconstruction eff orts in their respective countries to the great Asian tsunami of 2004. A series of natural disasters have struck several countries in Asia since then – most recently an earthquake in Padang in West Sumatra in Indonesia (October 2009) as this preface is being written – highlighting the importance of developing eff ective strate- gies to cope with such disasters. Following the tsunami, a huge, complex and region- wide aid program quickly got underway. The eff ort involved thousands of agencies from Asian national governments, foreign governments, multilateral donor agencies and non- governmental organizations. Before long, a vast number of reports, surveys, and evaluations were prepared. But inevitably, much of this material was prepared by international aid workers with limited local experience in the fi eld in Asia. It seemed appropriate to invite local research workers to write about the response to the disaster from a national perspective so that international views could be supplemented by views from the region. The resulting book draws on several aspects of the contemporary literature in the international development debate. This book is a product of joint eff orts. The individual country studies were authored primarily by national researchers. The Indonesia chapter was co- authored by Suahasil Nazara and Budy P. Resosudarmo, the Sri Lanka study by Dushni Weerakoon, Sisira Jayasuriya, Nisha Arunatilake and Paul Steele, and the Thailand chapter by Bhanupong Nidhiprabha. The issues in the book need to be considered with reference to the literature on disasters – and especially the extensive discussion that has been taking place in recent years about responses to disasters in developing countries. The Asian tsunami itself dramatically highlighted the terrible risks that megadisasters in poor countries pose to human security in the region, especially the security of people who live in poor and vulnerable communities. The disaster led to a sharp increase in awareness across Asia of the need to strengthen disaster risk reduction policies. It should be mentioned here at the outset that in carrying out research for this study we have benefi ted from many reports from international agencies ix M2406 - JAYASURIYA.indd ix 7/10/10 15:38:28 x Preface and researchers including the hundreds of reports of project work implemented in the fi eld by numerous donor agencies. Many of these reports are excellent. They provide detailed accounts of the work done by thousands of workers in the fi eld. In what follows, we have sought to draw on them and complement their analyses and fi ndings. The book is also a study of aid delivery. It thus draws on the international literature about aid and development. The response to the tsunami – by the Asian regional governments and communities as well as the international community – was a very large and unanticipated aid eff ort. Indeed, as a collective endeavour, the indications are that a national and international aid program amounting in total to perhaps US$17 billion or more was organized to support relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects following the tsunami. It was widely observed that this repre- sented one of the largest disaster response programs ever undertaken in developing countries. Many issues of aid policy and delivery arose as thousands of individual aid activities were implemented in the hope of ensuring that the US$17 billion would be used eff ectively. We should emphasize that this study has not been prepared with the aim of fi nding fault with the response to the 2004 tsunami. Doubtless some mistakes were made, and doubtless not every single one of the very large number of aid projects undertaken under very diffi cult circumstances in the fi eld was successful.

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