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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2015)
ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
January 5, 2015
10 years on, where did all the tsunami debris go?
DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE. Acehnese children
play near a house on which a fishing boat landed after
it was swept away by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Ten years after the gigantic
wave swept into the city of 4 million on the day after
Christmas, Banda Aceh has been almost totally re-
stored. The tangled mountains of rubbish are gone,
and it’s hard to imagine the destruction that once
choked rivers, blocked streets, and ripped up trees
by the roots. The house and the boat on it are now
preserved as a monument. (AP Photo/Heri Juanda)
By Fakhrurradzie Gade
and Niniek Karmini
The Associated Press
ANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Cars.
Fishing boats. Houses. Entire
villages. The 2004 tsunami left
Banda Aceh with mountains of debris up to
four miles inland.
Driving in the remade communities
today, it’s easy to wonder where it all went.
Some of it is still there — recycled into road
materials, buildings, and furniture. Some
of it was burned, creating new environ-
mental hazards. And most of it was simply
washed out to sea.
Ten years after that gigantic wave
engulfed the city of 4 million on the day
after Christmas, Banda Aceh has been
almost totally restored. The tangled
mountains of rubbish are gone, and it’s
hard to imagine the destruction that once
choked rivers, blocked streets, and ripped
up trees by the roots.
The endless heaps of twisted metal,
splintered wood, and broken concrete have
all disappeared except for some scattered
reminders for tourists and local residents.
A drive along the coast highlights a
stunning coastline with new houses
perched near the beach. Lush mangroves
have been planted to help withstand
future tsunamis, fishermen are back at
sea, and farmers are again working their
Still, authorities are concerned about
the health and environmental risks posed
by debris contaminated by oil, asbestos,
and medical waste sitting on the seafloor
off the coast and in 32 unregulated dump
sites around the city.
“Unsafe disposal of waste will cause
further environmental damage in the long
term,” said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who
headed the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction
and Rehabilitation Agency, which led the
massive clean-up effort and was dissolved
in 2009 after the job was judged finished.
Banda Aceh, located on the northern tip
of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, was the city
hardest hit by the disaster, which
devastated hundreds of communities in
more than a dozen countries around the
The tsunami left an estimated 13 million
cubic yards of debris, most of it washed
into the ocean, Mangkusubroto said. If all
two-and-a-half-acre field, it would create a
tower of trash 3,000 feet tall.
Cleaning up the wrecked city was a
mammoth, often overwhelming, task.
For weeks, the streets were strewn with
rubble, and rescue workers retrieved dead
bodies from under houses and in ponds,
said Abdul Mutalib Ahmad, who worked at
Banda Aceh’s only landfill and witnessed
the tsunami from atop a three-story
“Debris was everywhere,” he said. “We
thought we were facing [a] severe public
health problem with the massive amount
At first, many survivors simply burned
wood and other garbage. But authorities
discouraged them from doing that because
it polluted the air and could expose them to
harmful toxins that might lead to
respiratory problems. Some trash was
covered with oil or chemicals, making it
extremely flammable and hazardous, and
in at least one case, a fire spread
uncontrollably over a large area.
As key roads were cleared, trucks began
carting tons of debris to the landfill every
day for at least a year, Ahmad said.
But some waste inevitably got dumped
at random sites around the city. They still
contain leaky oil drums and asbestos-laced
Hazardous waste that was found among
the rubble was buried in a separate
marked area inside the city’s landfill,
according to Tomi Soetjipto, the
Indonesian spokesman for the U.N.
Development Program (UNDP), which
oversaw much of the clean-up effort. And
nearly 50 tons of expired medications —
some of it donated after the tsunami — sit
in a warehouse awaiting safe disposal.
Three months after the tsunami, the
UNDP started a $40.5 million recycling
temporary workers to pluck wood and
stone from the rubble and use the
materials to rebuild roads and houses as
well as to make furniture. The recycled
waste was used to reconstruct 62 miles of
roads and manufacture 12,000 pieces of
wooden furniture, Mangkusubroto said.
The UNDP’s Tsunami Recovery Waste
Management Project cleared about 1.3
million cubic yards of debris from the city,
enough to fill 400 Olympic swimming
pools. It also trained about 1,300 govern-
ment workers in overseeing the program.
Some 67,000 metric tons of other
recyclable materials such as glass, plastic,
and cardboard were diverted from landfills
and sold in local markets.
Indonesian authorities say the clean-up
was possible only with the help of the
“Finally, the mounting tsunami rubbish
was cleared. For such a huge job like that,
the world didn’t leave us alone to face it,”
Karmini reported from Jakarta.
Associated Press writer Margie Mason
contributed to this report from Banda Aceh.
Merriam-Webster names ‘culture’ word of the year
Continued from page 16
In-Town moves from
w AUTO TRANSPORTS
RESERVE one now
First United Engineering
Google Works, which includes a descrip-
tion of a software fix by a few engineers
that made ads more relevant on the search
“It wasn’t Google’s culture that turned
those five engineers into problem-solving
ninjas who changed the course of the
company over the weekend,” wrote the
authors, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
and former head of product development
“Rather it was the culture that attracted
the ninjas to the company in the first
Before the word culture exploded,
Sokolowski said, “we used to talk about
‘society’ a lot. Certain groups are taking
‘society’ out of their names now. It seems to
be receding. Part of that seems to be
because it’s elitist. We’re using the word
culture more frequently in that place.”
Not all lookup spikes are quite that
complex. The reason je ne sais quoi landed
at No. 6, for instance, is “dead simple,” he
The fast-food drive-in chain Sonic,
known for television spots featuring two
goofy dudes eating in a car, had them
munching on boneless chicken wings in
“I’ve finally found myself a wingman,”
goofy guy No. 1 says of the wings he hopes
will make him a chick magnet.
“Oh right,” sneers goofy guy No. 2,
“gonna give you that certain je ne sais
WINNING WORD. The word “culture” is seen in
the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in New
York. Merriam-Webster has named “culture” as its
2014 word of the year. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Responds No. 1: “Jenna said what?”
They mine the word play a couple more
times, but you get the picture.
“Since September, when this ad came
out, this word has been close to the Top 10
or in the Top 10 of our lookups almost
every single day,” Sokolowski said.
Fast-food aside, he called this year’s list
a relatively sober one.
Insidious, for example, received a bump
early in the year when a new trailer was
released for Insidious: Chapter 3, a
prequel in the horror film franchise
Insidious, out in June. The word surfaced
in a big way again, on October 8, when a
Texas hospital released a statement on the
death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first
confirmed Ebola patient in the United
The statement spoke of his courageous
battle and the hospital’s profound sadness
when he “succumbed to an insidious
Rounding out the Top 10 are innovation,
surreptitious, autonomy, and morbidity.
“This is a fairly sober list. It was a fairly
sober year,” he concluded.
Picha iliyotolewa na: Chuo Kikuu cha Oregon Maktaba; Eugene, OR Kuhusu mwandishi wa Asia. (Portland, Oregon) "Mwaka wa 2015 ni mwaka wa ""Success"" kwa Asia Pacific, na kwa sasa ni mwaka wa ""Success"" kwa Asia Pacific, na kwa sasa ni mwaka wa ""Success"" kwa Asia Pacific." Tofauti Kubwa. Watoto wa Aceh wanacheza karibu na nyumba ambayo mashua ya uvuvi ilitua baada ya kuharibiwa na tsunami ya Bahari ya Hindi ya 2004 huko Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Baada ya miaka kumi ya mawimbi makubwa ya maji kuangusha mji huo wenye wakazi milioni nne siku moja baada ya Krismasi, Banda Aceh imepatikana tena. Milima yenye fujo ya taka imekwisha, na ni vigumu kuwazia uharibifu ambao wakati mmoja ulifunga mito, kufungia barabara, na kuangusha miti kwa mizizi. Nyumba hiyo na mashua iliyokuwa juu yake sasa zimehifadhiwa kama mnara wa ukumbusho. Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha ya Picha. Mashua za uvuvi. Nyumba. Vijiji vyote. Tsunami ya mwaka 2004 ilisababisha mabaki ya milima ya mabaki ya bandari ya Banda Aceh. Kuendesha gari katika jamii zilizotengenezwa upya leo, ni rahisi kujiuliza ni wapi yote yalienda. Baadhi yake bado yapo <unk> yakitengenezwa upya kuwa vifaa vya barabara, majengo, na fanicha. Sehemu yake ilichomwa moto, na hivyo kutokeza hatari mpya za kimazingira. Na sehemu kubwa ya maji hayo yalipelekwa baharini. Baada ya miaka kumi tangu wimbi hilo kubwa lilipozama katika mji huo wenye wakazi milioni nne siku moja baada ya Krismasi, Banda Aceh imerudishwa kabisa. Milima yenye fujo ya taka imekwisha, na ni vigumu kuwazia uharibifu ambao wakati mmoja ulifunga mito, kufungia barabara, na kuangusha miti kwa mizizi. Mkusanyiko huo wa chuma, mbao zilizovunjika vipande-vipande, na saruji iliyovunjika haupo tena, isipokuwa tu alama za ukumbusho zilizotawanyika kwa ajili ya watalii na wakazi wa eneo hilo. Unapokuwa ukisafiri kando ya pwani, unaona pwani yenye kupendeza yenye nyumba mpya zilizo karibu na ufuo wa bahari. Mimea ya mangrove imepandwa ili kusaidia kukabiliana na tsunami za baadaye, wavuvi wamerudi baharini, na wakulima wanafanya kazi tena.Wale wote, mamlaka zina wasiwasi juu ya hatari za kiafya na mazingira zinazosababishwa na mabaki ya mafuta, asbestos na taka za matibabu zilizopo kwenye sakafu ya bahari na katika maeneo 32 yasiyo na udhibiti karibu na jiji. "Utekelezaji usio salama wa taka utazalisha uharibifu zaidi wa mazingira kwa muda mrefu,"" alisema Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, aliyekuwa mkuu wa Shirika la Ujenzi na Urekebishaji la Aceh na Nias, ambalo liliongoza juhudi kubwa za kusafisha na kufutwa mwaka 2009 baada ya kazi hiyo kuhukumiwa kumalizika." Jiji la Banda Aceh, lililo kaskazini mwa kisiwa cha Sumatra nchini Indonesia, ndilo lililokumbwa na msiba huo, ambao umeharibu jamii nyingi katika nchi zaidi ya kumi na mbili zilizozunguka eneo hilo. Kwa mfano, ikiwa uwanja wote wa ekari mbili na nusu ungeweza kuunda mnara wa taka wenye urefu wa mita 3,000, basi uwanja huo ungeweza kupanuka na kuwa na urefu wa mita 3,500. Kusafisha jiji lililoharibiwa lilikuwa kazi kubwa sana, ambayo mara nyingi ilikuwa ngumu sana. "Kwa wiki kadhaa, barabara zilikuwa zimejaa mabaki ya mawe na wafanyakazi wa uokoaji walichukua maiti kutoka chini ya nyumba na kwenye vidimbwi, ""alisema Abdul Mutalib Ahmad, ambaye alifanya kazi katika mahali pekee pa kuondoa taka huko Banda Aceh na alishuhudia tsunami kutoka juu ya jengo la ghorofa tatu." <unk>Tulidhani tulikuwa tukikabiliwa na [a] tatizo kubwa la afya ya umma na kiasi kikubwa Mwanzoni, waokokaji wengi walichoma kuni na taka nyingine. Lakini wenye mamlaka waliwazuia kufanya hivyo kwa sababu ilichafua hewa na ingeweza kuwafunua sumu zenye kudhuru ambazo zingeweza kusababisha matatizo ya kupumua. Baadhi ya taka hizo zilikuwa zimefunikwa kwa mafuta au kemikali, na hivyo zikawa hatari sana, na angalau katika kisa kimoja, moto ulienea bila kudhibitiwa katika eneo kubwa. "Wakati barabara kuu zilipofutwa, malori yalianza kubeba tani za mabaki hadi kwenye mahali pa kuondoa taka kila siku kwa angalau mwaka mmoja,"" alisema Ahmad." Lakini bila shaka baadhi ya taka zilitupwa katika maeneo yasiyo ya kawaida kuzunguka jiji. Mafuriko hayo yalikuwa yamechimbwa katika eneo la pekee lililowekwa alama ndani ya eneo la kuondoa takwimu za uchafuzi wa mazingira, alisema Tommi Soetjipto, msemaji wa Shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la Maendeleo (UNDP) nchini Indonesia. Na karibu tani 50 za dawa zilizopitwa na wakati - baadhi ya hizo zilitolewa baada ya tsunami - ziko katika ghala zikisubiri kuondolewa salama. Mnamo mwezi wa Septemba, UNDP ilianzisha mpango wa dola milioni 40.5 wa kuajiri wafanyakazi wa muda kuondoa mbao na mawe kwenye mabaki ya mawe na kutumia vifaa hivyo kujenga barabara na nyumba na kutengeneza fanicha. "Mafaa hayo yalitumiwa kujenga barabara za umbali wa maili 62 na kutengeneza fanicha 12,000 za mbao,"" alisema Mangusubroto." Mradi wa Usimamizi wa Taka za Tsunami wa UNDP uliondoa takriban mita milioni 1.3 za mraba kutoka jiji, ya kutosha kujaza vidimbwi 400 vya kuogelea vya Olimpiki. Pia, ilifundisha wafanyakazi wa serikali wapatao 1,300 kusimamia programu hiyo. Zaidi ya tani 67,000 za vifaa vingine vinavyoweza kutumiwa tena kama vile kioo, plastiki, na makaratasi vilitolewa kwenye makazi ya taka na kuuzwa katika masoko ya eneo hilo. Mamlaka za Indonesia zinasema kusafisha kulikuwa na uwezekano tu kwa msaada wa <unk> Mwishowe, taka za tsunami zilizokuwa zikiongezeka ziliondolewa. Kwa kazi kubwa kama hiyo, ulimwengu haukutuacha peke yetu kuikabili, Karmini aliripoti kutoka Jakarta. Mwandishi wa Associated Press Margie Mason alichangia ripoti hii kutoka Banda Aceh. "Mara nyingi, Google imekuwa ikijulikana kama ""Ninja ya Ufumbuzi wa Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Ufumbuzi wa Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Ufumbuzi ya Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Ufumbuzi ya Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Ufumbuzi ya Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Ufumbuzi ya Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Ufumbuzi ya Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Mawasiliano"" na ""Ninja ya Mawasiliano.""" Vikundi fulani sasa vinatoa neno "jamii" katika majina yao. Yaonekana inageuka. Sehemu ya kwamba inaonekana kuwa kwa sababu ni elitist. Sisi ni kutumia neno utamaduni mara nyingi zaidi katika mahali hapo. Si wote kuangalia spikes ni kabisa kwamba tata. Sababu je ne sais quoi aliwasili katika No. "Sonic, mkanda wa chakula cha haraka, unajulikana kwa matangazo ya televisheni yenye watu wawili wa kipumbavu wakila ndani ya gari, aliwafanya kula mabawa ya kuku bila mifupa katika ""Mimi hatimaye nimepata wingman,"" mtu wa kipumbavu." "Mmoja wa wavuvi hao alisema, ""Nina matumaini kwamba ndege hao watamfanya awe na uwezo wa kuvutia wanawake.""" <unk>Oh haki,<unk> sneers goofy guy No. 2 - Je nadhani wewe ni mtu wa kweli na unajua nini maana ya neno la kushinda? Neno "utamaduni" linaonekana katika Kamusi ya Chuo cha Merriam-Webster huko New York. Merriam-Webster imetoa jina la "utamaduni" kama neno la mwaka wa 2014. (Picha ya AP: Richard Drew) Jibu Hapana. "Jenna alisema ""Nini?"" na kisha akaanza kucheza na maneno ""Nini?"" mara mbili zaidi, lakini unajua picha." "Tangu Septemba, wakati tangazo hili lilipotokea, neno hili limekuwa karibu na 10 ya Juu au katika 10 ya Juu ya utafutaji wetu karibu kila siku, ""Sokolowski alisema." Mbali na vyakula vya haraka, aliita orodha ya mwaka huu kuwa ya kiasi. Insidious ilitolewa mnamo Juni, na trailer mpya ya Insidious: Sura ya 3 ilitolewa mnamo Juni. "Hatimaye, katika taarifa yake ya mwisho, Hospitali ya Texas ilitoa taarifa kuhusu kifo cha Thomas Eric Duncan, mgonjwa wa kwanza wa Ebola nchini Marekani, akisema: ""Hatimaye, Hospitali ya Texas imetoa taarifa kuhusu kifo chake, na ilisema kuwa ni ""kijaribu sana.""" <unk>Hii ni orodha ya kiasi sobri. Ilikuwa mwaka wa kiasi sobri, <unk> yeye alihitimisha.