18-12, Nishiochiai 2-chome,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 161-8575, Japan
Phone: +81-3-5906-0211
FAX: +81-3-5906-0112

Disaster Rehabilitation

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE OF PROJECT

The Sumatra earthquake resulted in 82 deaths and 26 persons reported missing, and forced more than 15,000 people to evacuate their homes in the Republic of Maldives. While damage to the capital Malé was fortunately minimized due largely to a seawall which was constructed between 1988 and 2002 under Japan’s grant aid, other local islands and atolls were significantly damaged. More than 5,700 houses were damaged in total, and the total reconstruction of all houses in 58 of the 199 inhabited islands has been deemed necessary. Furthermore, widespread destruction has occurred to public infrastructure such as harbor facilities on local islands, seashore protection structures, causeways, electricity facilities, and island administrative offices. Many fishing boats were wrecked, dealing a savage blow to the local fishing industry, a source of livelihood for many local residents. The tourism industry was also seriously affected, with the number of the tourists traveling to the Maldives nose-diving in June 2005 to fewer than half the number of tourists when compared to the same month of the previous year.
Under these circumstances, the government of the Republic of Maldives requested the Japanese government to cooperate in the emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction of the islands where the damage caused by the tsunami was the most serious. JICA decided to immediately commence development study based on this request.

CHARACTERISTICS, CONCEPT, STANCE & SKILLS OF PROJECT

This project has been designed as a rehabilitation assistance program that supports improvements to the capacity of mutual assistance, formed in Japanese society that places emphasis on combining governmental assistance, community assistance and self reliance. This project will address what is required of the Tsunami Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Assistance Program and the National Development Program in the Maldives. It will also respond to the needs of local residents regarding the reconstruction of housing and the restoration of their living environment, in particular the need to provide the local populace with a necessary source of income to ensure their livelihood. This project also aims to improve the social capacity of the local community for disaster prevention through the experience gained by local communities by being proactive in establishing institutions for project implementation, harmonizing views in the local community, and participating in the project itself with relation to 1) the reuse of available bricks from the debris of houses destroyed by the Tsunami that have been sorted out from bricks collected by the local populace as the building blocks for new construction, 2) the use of reused bricks to build a memorial to the victims of the Tsunami disaster, evacuation areas etc., and 3) the implementation of education for disaster prevention aimed at local residents and primary and junior-high school children, who are responsible for the future wellbeing of the Maldives.

EFFECT OF PROJECT

This project provided a framework for self development based on activities that can be implemented using existing organizations based on the experience gained by the community from administrative support, the smooth establishment of organizations for the implementation of programs and by implementing programs based on the active participation of local communities, guaranteeing the organizational sustainability of the project. This project also contributed to the cohesiveness of local communities from the viewpoint of social capital, which refers to the special characteristics within any society, such as the ability to improve the efficiency of society through coordinated action, reliance, regulations and networking. The project also helped foster hope within local population for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of their living environment through council meetings, collaborative efforts and managerial activities relating to the implementation of the project. On the basis of these outcomes, improvements were made to the social capacity of the local communities.