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The 26th of December, 2004, with almost 300,000 dead, the tsunami which hit the coast of the

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Indian Ocean will remain one of the world's worst disasters.

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The northernmost point of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Aceh, was one of the most seriously

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affected regions.

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In this province alone, there were 130,000 dead, 90,000 missing, and more than 500,000

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made homeless.

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Here as in the other places the wave struck, the European Union is heavily committed to

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supplying emergency humanitarian aid and reconstruction.

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Within the first two months, almost every single person had shelter, had food, had basic

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health care.

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At this moment, we're more looking at projects which are trying to go, well, to make this

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link to full reconstruction.

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And that's often small rehabilitation reconstruction from infrastructure which was existing.

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One of the first priorities now is to restore the water supply systems.

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The European Union is supporting the work of CARE.

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This Dutch NGO has been working for months to repair the reservoirs and to bring better

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hygiene conditions to the devastated areas.

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Water and sanitation is one of the most important things to the people who are affected with

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this disaster and that people more vulnerable to the disease, for example, like diarrhea

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or infection.

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And CARE try to help people based on what they need through community approach.

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We have participatory rural appraisal, so we identify what the people need.

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Before the disaster, almost every house in this district used a well.

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On the 26th of December, the seawater and debris swept in by the tsunami seriously polluted

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and damaged all these water sources.

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And this has held up the return of the population.

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Using local workers, CARE has taken on the repair and the systematic cleansing of every

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single one of them.

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We targeted 1,000 wells that will be cleaned and rehabilitated.

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We already rehabilitated around 500 wells and we will finish it by the end of January.

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A thousand wells means that 5,000 people will be able to come back to live in this district.

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But there's an even bigger problem.

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In infiltrating the ground, the seawater has salinated parts of the water table.

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To find sources of drinking water, it's often necessary to drill down as deep as 150 meters.

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This is the only way the place can become habitable again.

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With the help of European funding, the NGO is also trying to repair the invisible damage.

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In this recently rebuilt school, only 45 out of 290 children survived.

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And many of them have suffered serious psychological damage.

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According to the headmaster, some of them are even frightened of the rain.

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From time to time, CARE organizes an activity on the theme of water to reassure them and

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also to teach the children that water is also about hygiene, health and life.

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The tidal wave has also deprived a large part of the population of all means of subsistence.

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On the southern coast of the island of Sumatra, hardly one boat survived the assault of the waves.

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And most of the fishermen who survived lost everything.

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Without outside help, very few of them have gone back to the sea.

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On average, a new boat costs five years of a fisherman's salary.

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This is what's motivated Serge Gruel.

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He works for Triangle.

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This French NGO proposed a scheme to the European Union to help the fishermen to go back to

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work by providing them with boats.

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Triangle went to meet the fishing communities and together they saw which fishermen were still alive.

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From that, lists were drawn up of which fishermen had lost which type of boat and then what

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he'd need to go back into fishing as soon as possible.

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We give them a boat because they're lost without fishing gear and an engine to be able to go

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back to work as soon as possible.

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To kick off the project, Triangle hired workers who were also unemployed because of a lack

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of customers.

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Together they set up a workshop and now produce as many as 10 boats a month.

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Of the 131 boats promised to the community, more than 80 have already been delivered to

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the fishermen.

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The boat builders work hard.

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They know how keen the fishermen are to go back to the sea.

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They want to work as fishermen again.

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They're waiting for their boats to be delivered.

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They absolutely want to go back to the sea.

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It's their whole life and their living.

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Even if it was because of the sea that they lost their work.

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When the project ends, happily, it won't mean the workshop will close.

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When Triangle leaves here, when we finish our fishing project, we're going to do all

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we can to make sure this organization works on its own as some sort of cooperative.

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So that's how we think it's going to carry on.

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A few kilometers away, European funding is helping Triangle to rehabilitate the small

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local fishing port.

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Every evening as the boats come back in, all the bustle of the fish market is back as people

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get on with all sorts of little jobs.

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After school, the small children unload the fish and the older ones stow away the gear.

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Meanwhile, the people from Roundabout and a few fish merchants are already bargaining

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for the best catches.

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It's a whole slice of local life that's gradually getting back on its feet and lots of people

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who no longer need assistance can look forward to a real future.

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With hundreds of these sorts of projects and a total commitment of around 2 billion

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euro, the European Union is the biggest contributor to post-tsunami aid and reconstruction.

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In the Indonesian province of Aceh, the European Union has even helped to quell the armed conflict

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between the independence movement and the Indonesian government.

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Now the EU is working to reintegrate former rebels into civilian life.

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Peace and reconstruction go hand in hand.

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It's quite clear Europe is committed on all fronts, but to ensure that the situation on

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the ground is efficient and coherent, there's a constant need for proper analysis of the

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situation and that's the job of the brand new Europe House in Banda Aceh.

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We are not managing projects here directly.

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We are more trying to get the feeling of what's going on and try to help to refocus our activities

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here in Aceh, while at the same time try to talk to as many people, put them around

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the table and try to get as coherent activities as possible.

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The day after its inauguration, the Europe House premises are still rather empty, unlike

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the director's diary.

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On the agenda today, housing.

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We asked him how it was possible that one year on, tens of thousands of people are still

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living in temporary housing.

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His answer, you just can't imagine the size of the problem.

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To convince us, Francisco Fontan takes us to the land registry in Aceh.

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On these photos, he shows us that in certain places, the sea did not completely retreat

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and it literally destroyed millions of hectares settled and farmed by local people.

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Some lost their land in the disaster and don't know where to rebuild.

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Elsewhere, the countryside has been so devastated that it's necessary to redraw the boundaries

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of tens of thousands of parcels of land and then find the owners or their heirs.

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A huge task to which the European Union is giving financial aid, as well as all the ultra-detailed

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satellite images from the European Space Agency.

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It's important because the pre-tsunami satellite imagery is probably the best form of evidence

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of what the occupation of the land looked like before the tsunami.

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In many areas, the tsunami has destroyed all the evidence, like fences and walls.

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Some of the evidence has also been destroyed in the cleanup as well.

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Armed with the satellite photos, researchers investigate the ravaged areas.

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Where did this road go?

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Who lived there?

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Was there a drainage system?

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The slightest clue is used to restore everyone's land to them.

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Given the size of the task, dozens of surveyors have been trained to speed up the mapping

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of the land.

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The local people are waiting impatiently for them to finish because, of course, that means

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the builders can move in.

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Russia estimates the cost of reconstructing Aceh at more than four billion euros over

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the next five years.

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Europe will take care of a good part of it.

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Already well represented on the ground, the European Union will continue to play a leading

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role in reconstruction, and also to support the building of lasting peace in the region.