Nearly a quarter of a million people died in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the majority of deaths in Indonesia. Now, at least half of the 140,000 houses reconstructed in the hardest-hit province of Aceh, Indonesia, have been abandoned by the survivors who originally received them.
The construction of these permanent housing units cost $1.6 billion in international aid. Building housing in the very places where people’s homes were destroyed was thought to be the best way to facilitate speedy recovery, with residents able to resume their lives and livelihoods.
Researchers say factors such as trauma, loss of familial ties, and lack of economic and educational opportunities led people to leave these homes. As the 20th anniversary of the Boxing Day disaster approached, many of the homes were unoccupied, with the structures dismantled, destroyed, or deteriorating. In this project, journalist Leila Goldstein speaks with Aceh’s tsunami survivors to understand why.
