After the tsunami
Rebuilding lives: A first step to rebuilding a
community
The Indian
Ocean tsunami took some one million lives in Sri Lanka and
Indonesia alone, mostly among fishing, tourism and small business
workers. In Sri Lanka, the disaster also cost some half a million
persons their jobs – adding to the 750,000 already out of work. An
ILO survey says half of those newly unemployed could be back at work
before the end of the year – if adequate aid for reconstruction and
repair of shattered work places as well as replacement of lost
equipment is given (Note
1). This report shows what challenges remain.
HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka – The coconut seller parks
his bicycle in front of one of the few buildings left standing near
the beach in Hambantota on the south coast of Sri Lanka, one of the
fishing towns worst hit by the tsunami.
He has been selling
king coconuts in the fish market here for over 15 years, quenching
the thirst of hundreds of fishermen and buyers who daily filled the
beach with their produce for sale.
"I used to bring the
coconuts in a tractor and could sell between 100 and 200 coconuts a
day", he said. "On market day, we used a truck and could sell around
500 of them. Now it's all gone."
His tractor, his stand, the
buyers, in fact the whole market is gone. The fishing monument that
stood over a square of 200 stalls now stands lonely guard over just
two.
The day the tsunami hit, Mr. Nandhasena was in his
stand just under the monument near the centre of the market, when he
noticed the tarpaulin that shielded him from the intense Sri Lankan
sun was being sucked back towards the ocean. Something in him said
this was not right and he ran from the beach shouting at others to
follow. He made it to high ground, but most of the people in the
market did not.
Today, his stand is a rickety bicycle from
which hang two branches of king coconuts. He has perhaps 12 for sale
in all, but on this day his only customers are a group of university
students. They have been recruited by the ILO JobsNet project to
survey survivors of the disaster.
Creating a national network for jobs
JobsNet has been working with the ILO to create a national network
of job centres in Sri Lanka. Their offices are connected by internet
using a series of radio repeater stations, rather than traditional
telephony. Their internal system was unaffected by the tsunami and
in the first days after the disaster, email and internet were the
only ways survivors in this area could communicate with the rest of
the world.
"Our survey team has been trying to find out what
people were doing before the tsunami, how they were economically
active, and how they think they are going to earn an income now",
says Sujith Yamasinghe, one of the coordinators of the JobsNet
project in Sri Lanka.
Interviewing the survivors can be a
delicate task. Many still suffer the trauma of having lost
everything. The ILO and the World Food Programme organized the
survey using the JobsNet organisation. Marc Vansteenkiste, the ILO
Project Advisor of JobsNet, was first worried about the youth of his
volunteers, but after checking with several authorities in the field
of disaster counselling, he was told to go ahead.
"When you
send in young people with questionnaires, people are more at ease
with them and realistic. They don't expect anything from such a
young person", he says.
Vansteenkiste points out that the
survey is important because it will encompass not only loss of
employment in the formal sector, but also in the informal sector,
small business owners like Mr. Nandhasena who may be missed in other
surveys.
According to Vansteenkiste, "they may only need a
small amount, but those small amounts will be crucial to
resurrecting the larger community".
But it's important that
aid goes where it is needed most. Supplies for basic needs like food
and shelter continue to arrive, but the long-term work of rebuilding
the economy of this small town will happen one person at a time. The
survey assessed what property, equipment and skills have been lost
and what it will take to put people back to work. It serves as a
kind of map that shows the routes to take to put a community back on
its feet.
Twenty per cent of affected households do not
expect to rely on the same sector of activity as they did for income
prior to the tsunami. The fishing and tourism industries and small
businesses have been most affected. For instance, businesses like
Mr. Mowlana's grocery store. He used to supply rice and other food
in bulk to local merchants and earned around US$100 a day. All he
has left now are a few newspapers and an empty shell of a store.
Overall, in at least 56 per cent of all households of one person or
more, may need funds for financing their business or
self-employment.
"What I need now is a grant", he said.
"Half the villagers have died and I have bank loans to repay. If I
get a small grant, that will be enough", Mr. Mowlana said.
Looking around at the devastated scene that was once a
thriving community, it is hard to believe that just a small loan
will be enough. Workers are clearing away the rubble in Hambantota
and have even rebuilt the communications tower. The tsunami that
swept away homes, lives and livelihoods one bright December morning,
has not dampened the entrepreneurial spirit of a fishing town
rebuilding its community by the sea.
Note 1 - See "Earthquake-Tsunami
Response: ILO Proposals for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and
Recovery", www.ilo.org. |