Tips for Philippines from '04 Indonesia tsunami recovery

MANILA, Philippines — The man who steered Indonesia to recovery after the 2004 tsunami has some cautionary words for the Philippines as well as some advice as it begins planning reconstruction after super-typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who headed a specially created, powerful government agency tasked with coordinating more than $7 billion in aid that flowed to the country after the disaster, was a key figure in reconstructing Indonesia's Aceh province, the worst-hit area, accounting for about half the deaths.

 There also were far more deaths in Aceh. Moreover, much of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, was leveled.

Around 130,000 houses were built in less than three years, along with scores of airports, roads and schools. It was the biggest construction project in the developing world. Aceh's reconstruction didn't always run smoothly, especially during the first year, but it is now almost universally regarded as successful.

These days, the only sign that Banda Aceh was the epicenter of an appalling disaster are two ships carried miles inland by the giant waves. They are now popular and well-managed attractions on a "tsunami tourism" trail in the city.

How did Indonesia do it? Mangkusubroto and Nathaniel Von Einsiedel, chairman of an urban development consultancy firm who helped in Indonesia's recovery, share the following lessons to the Philippines:

• Survivors will get angry about living in tents well before permanent houses are ready, and inflation will soon make those houses much more expensive to build.
• Start working now and get survivors involved in the process.
• Prepare warehouses now all over the region and fill them with construction materials. Fix the prices now.
• People shouldn't have to live in tents for more than six months. It causes social tension.
• It will likely take months to even decide where to build, or what safety standards to use, because the government and affected communities will need to work together to come up with the right answers. In Aceh, authorities initially banned construction close to the sea, but this was shelved as impractical because the province relies on fishing.
• Massive amount of money created its own complications. Some of the more than 180 aid agencies that flocked to Aceh took on projects they were not qualified for or duplicated other schemes. Some families got a house they didn't need, or in a place where didn't want to move to. Others got more than one. Today, empty, rotting houses aren't hard to find.
•  Giving cash to disaster survivors, either in a grant or in exchange for projects such as cleaning debris, is effective and popular.  Old-school development thinking shied away from handing out money, partly out of fears it would be "squandered." Studies by aid agencies and academics have shown that is not the case.

Rebuilding in typhoon-hit areas is quite a task ahead for the Philippines, where about 320,000 houses have been destroyed by Yolanda and land titles and government records were lost.

The Philippines is poor, but its governance structures are stronger than those in Haiti. Aid groups will have less money to spend than after the 2004 tsunami, but coupled with Philippine government funds and loans from agencies like the World Bank, many experts and aid workers are optimistic that the region will recover.

"I think it would be disappointing if we come back in four years' time and people are worse off than what they were coming into this," said Michael Delaney, who leads Oxfam America's humanitarian response to emergencies. - Chris Brummitt with Teresa Cerojano, AP