IRC Cleans Wells, Distributes Critical Supplies in Flood-hit Aceh

Tamiang, Aceh, INDONESIA - 26 Jan 2007 -   In the month following the flash floods and mudslides that killed over 100 people and left tens of thousands homeless in the Indonesian province of Aceh, the IRC has cleaned some 30 wells contaminated by dirty flood water. The IRC response team, which set up a camp by the local water plant in the worst-hit district of Tamiang in southeastern Aceh, has also trained 80 local health workers in well cleaning and distributed 500 kilos of water purifying chemicals, hygiene kits and essential tools.
 
“The cleaning process was tremendously hard work,” says Andrew Baker, the IRC’s response team leader. “Our crews usually only got through two or three wells per day so we had to carefully pick the wells we worked on to have a maximum impact. By training and equipping the local organizations to do the work, we slowed down the number of wells we could do each day but expanded our overall impact. The people we trained are still on the job, restoring the critical wells in their own communities.”
 
Close to 90 percent of the land in Tamiang was under water when the floods hit the area at the end of last month. Bridges and roads were swept away and more than 12,500 houses were destroyed. An estimated 200,000 residents across the affected area are suffering from lost livestock, ruined crops and severed supplies of safe water.
 
“My house is destroyed and I have lost everything,” one woman told the IRC team in Tamiang. “I don’t even have any clothes or school books for my children. My husband’s becak (motorcycle taxi) was swept away by the mud, so he has no opportunity to earn money anymore.”
 
Immediately after the disaster, IRC teams started to distribute water, food and hygiene items to thousands of affected people. Two weeks ago, the IRC handed over relief operations in the flood area to the CARDI aid consortium, a separate group of which the IRC is a member.