The Mandailing in the Homeland

The local government has done the assessment. UNHCR reported that 200 tents have arrived in the Bupati office in Tabuyung, Mandailing Natal. Tabuyung village in Mandailing Natal, material loss has been suffered with damage to 144 houses, the loss of fishing boats and tackle, and wells within an 800-metre radius of the beach turned saline. Inhabitants of this village are in urgent need of artesian wells or clean water facilities, fishing boats and tackle (dragnets, mackerel (tenggiri) nets, equipment for drying fish, seeds (vegetable, durian and rice seed), fertiliser and pesticide.

Desa Tabuyung di Mandailing Natal menderita kerugian material dengan rusaknya 144 rumah, kehilangan peralatan melaut, dan sumur-sumur dalam radius 800 m dari pantai menjadi asin. Kebutuhan mendesak warga desa ini adalah sumur bor atau pengadaan air bersih, peralatan melaut (perahu, pukat, jaring tengiri), alat menjemur ikan, bibit pertanian (bibit palawija, durian, dan padi), pupuk serta racun hama.

Près de 1200 IDP du village de Tabuyung, sous district de Muara Batang, district de Mandailing, sont toujours en situation précaire. Ils vivent dans des tentes et huttes bricolées et ne reçoivent pas d'attention particulière (source : Comprehensive News on Aceh and Nias, November 21st).

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WFP Emergency Report
Issued weekly by the United Nations World Food Programme
Report No. 18 / 2005 - Date 29 April 2005

A 2-day food needs assessment was completed in Mandailing Natal District in North Sumatra Province. The visit was made to Tabuyung village, Natal, where reportedly 80 percent of the houses were heavily damaged and an estimated 2,230 were displaced by the 28 March earthquake. A report will be issued by the end of this week.

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Assalamu Alaikum Tariq - this is a note of the time I spent in North Sumatra from 6 to 10 August.

Tabuyung

The province of North Sumatra has a contiguous border with Aceh and lies immediately south of it. For reasons that are not immediately clear the west coast south of Aceh did not suffer damage to the same extent as Aceh itself but there are isolated spots that were badly hit and one such is Tabuyung village, located on the edge of the sea, in the Mandailing Natal region of North Sumatra. Tabuyung lies directly opposite Niyas Island. Tabuyung was hit twice: irst on 26 December and the second time on 27 March. The second time round was a double hit: a quake at 1130 pm on the 27th followed by a bigger wave than the December one 3 1/2 hours later.

Fortunately casualties were few: 1 fatality and 10 injured after the second incident. The original Tsunami destroyed 85 houses and damaged 35; the second incident destroyed 462 houses and damaged 223. An entire madrasa which catered for over 200 children was flattened together with five masallahs; nine fishing boats were totally damaged.

There are no international NGOs present in the area. UNHCR moved in after the December hit and much of their work was undone in March. IOM(?) was present in the initial weeks giving food aid I am told. Many families now live in tents and other temporary shelter and others are trying to reclaim their shattered homes although the government has allocated fresh land some distance from the beach. I visited this new location which I was told the people have accepted.

A total of 685 dwellings need to be put up and the Bait Ul Mal located in Jakarta has promised to fund 83 of these. No one else has come forward to fill this huge shortfall although land is available free. Each 36 sq. m. abode with 2 rooms and outside toilet has been estimated to cost Rp. 18m. The Social Welfare Department I am told has agreed to subsidise house building to the extent of Rp. 5m per unit but it is unclear how many such units they were willing to support.

I would summarise the immediate requirements of this community as follows:
• Housing units - as many as can be supplied.
• Building a madrasa in a new location - the tentative costs are land (plot available) Rp. 65m; building costs of Rp. 400m for a 130 sq.m. structure with 5 class rooms plus another Rp. 50m for equipment. This madarasa will cater for 200 children at primary level.
• Tube wells - need to be estimated.
• Boats - nine were lost.

It needs to emphasised that Tabuyung which was a thriving fishing village has passed the world by although in physical terms it has been as badly hit as any part of Aceh. This may be because of its isolated position and I strongly urge Muslim Hands to move in and adopt this village as no other NGO is present in this location until the present time. I would also recommend that Zulkifli Lubis, the anthropologist at Medan University, who you met, be co-opted on to the group you set up with Taufik and Khairul. He will prove to be a useful resource in many ways with his knowledge of the area where he has an extensive network of contacts.

Would urge an immediate evaluation visit by the Muslim Hands team. The village headman who I met is Eka Irshad Hasibuan. I was accompanied on this trip, apart from Zulkifli, by Muhammad Yusuf Nasution, head of the Social Welfare Department of the province.

Fazlun M. Khalid
Founder Director
Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences
93 Court Road, Birmingham B12 9LQ, UK
Phone 00 44 (0)121 440 3500; Fax 00 44 (0)121 440 8144
Email - ahlan@ifees.org; Web - www.ifees.org
Registered as a charity in the UK No. 1041198

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