Flawed aid estimates cost victims of tsunami
[ UniNews Vol. 16, No. 1
5 - 19 February 2007 ]
Tens of thousands of families still in temporary shacks two years after the Boxing Day Tsunami face longer delays in getting permanent shelters due to major underestimation of the costs of reconstruction, according to an international study led by the University of Melbourne.
Researchers at the University’s Asian Economics Centre (AEC), in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, found construction costs increased by up to 100 per cent in some regions of Asia due to unavoidable squeezes on resources that should have been built into cost predictions by major economic institutions.
The researchers also found that institutional bottlenecks, aggravated by what they call ‘clumsy’ bureaucratic procedures and coordination from some donor agencies, have resulted in only a fraction of available funds being fully utilised.
Associate Professor Sisira Jayasuriya, lead researcher and Director of the AEC, says more than 40 000 families in Indonesia and tens of thousands of families in Sri Lanka are still without permanent housing two years after the tsunami.
The study, completed with partners in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, looked at the recovery from the 26 December 2004 disaster, and highlighted key recommendations for future major disaster recovery including:
The provision of cash payments to families in disaster areas to cut through bureaucratic red tape and speed recovery;
Establishment of institutional mechanisms to coordinate relief efforts by national and international agencies; and
More realistic estimation of reconstruction costs.
“There were problems connected to the provision of resources and funds, and also the costs required to complete reconstruction were massively under-estimated,” says Associate Professor Jayasuriya.
“The uneven distribution of funds is often driven by political forces. In Sri Lanka, for example, the politically-favoured west and south-west is doing far better than the north and east which are also hit by resurgence of conflict, partly fuelled by perceived unfair distribution of tsunami funds.”
Associate Professor Jayasuriya says aid estimates from the World Bank and the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation failed to take into account rising construction costs, driven by demand and limited resources in small areas.
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