Tsunami -- Two Years Later

Remembrances are being held across Asia today on the two-year anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami whose devastating waves killed 230,000 people across the region and left millions homeless.

Many parts of the region are still struggling to recover from the catastrophe, even as new floods and landslides in Indonesia are again forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Billions of dollars in aid donations which poured in from around the world, and help from foreign governments, including Germany, are helping regions rebuild their infrastructure, although accusations have surfaced alleging some reconstruction money has been wasted.

A look back

On December 26, 2004, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the shore of the Indonesian province Aceh triggered giant waves that fanned out across the Indian Ocean. The tsunami took nearly 230,000 lives and left around two million people homeless in 13 nations, including Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

The tsunami extended as far as the African continent, causing destruction in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as on Madagascar.

Many of the survivors lost their children; most lost their homes. Entire infrastructures, including fresh water supplies and power lines, were wiped away.

After seeing the images of the tsunami's destruction on television, and still warmed by the holiday season, governments and people around the world pledged an unprecedented amount of money to help the victims -- nearly $14 billion.

German aid

Germans donated around 670 million euros ($880 million). Those donations and the many others given to international organizations were initially spent on emergency care, including medicine, food, tents and blankets.

German organizations working in Aceh say reconstruction efforts have included rebuilding or repairing hospitals, for instance. Half of the 120,000 destroyed homes have been rebuilt in the region, and 750 new schools have gone up.

Though much progress has been made, reconstruction is likely to last another three years, said Christoph Ernesti, a German relief worker who traveled through the region in November to review the situation.

"We are now focusing our efforts are long-term perspectives for the people here," Ernesti said.

Those efforts include helping to recultivate rice fields which were saturated with salt during the tsunami. Sewing co-operatives have been established to generate income.

Christoph Müller of the German Red Cross is impressed by aid efforts. "Aceh is booming -- in the building business and other areas -- and that is primarily due to the humanitarian aid," he said. "But that won't go on forever."

More money

The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is currently providing 44 million euros to rebuild medical facilities. A large portion of that money has been spent to construct a new hospital designed to be safe from floodwaters in the province's capital, Banda Aceh.

Aid from the German government is also being spent on apartment-reconstruction programs in which future residents help to rebuild their homes themselves -- laying everything from cinderblock to pouring cement.

Other aid goes toward providing boots to fishermen, while also helping them to set up businesses.

Impressed by the progress she saw during her visit to Aceh, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul increased the development aid budget for Aceh by 20 milllion euros to a total of 185 million euros, which should last until 2009.

Others are less optimistic about the progress. In Aceh, hundreds of thousands of survivors still have no permanent homes or jobs, with many facing the prospect of being refugees for years to come.

Aid money mismanagement?

Furthermore, some estimate that only one-third of the promised aid has been distributed to all the countries affected by the tsunami, and much of that has been lost to corruption, mismanagement, political squabbles and bureaucracy.

Seven western countries have submitted a joint complaint to Thai police about the disappearance of an estimated one million dollars in donations.

The complaint -- dated November 22 and signed by the ambassadors to the Bangkok-based embassies of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain and the United States -- alleged that more than 60 percent of about 60 million baht ($1.7 million) in funds collected from their citizens for tsunami relief were "wasted and disguised as traveling and other miscellaneous expenses," The Nation newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.

The tsunami killed an estimated 5,300 people, half of them foreign tourists, in Thailand's provinces of Phuket, Phang Nha and Krabi -- all popular resort destinations.

Sri Lanka on the edge

Relief efforts in hard-hit Sri Lanka, where 31,000 people died and another million were left homeless, have been sluggish, largely due to that island nation's ongoing civil conflict. In contrast to Aceh, where the disaster brought about the end of a three-decade insurgency, Sri Lanka's conflict has heated up again and reconstruction and aid work have been hampered.

A resurgence in the two-decade civil war between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels has forced thousands of Tamils, including tsunami survivors, to flee homes and camps for the second time in two years.

Germany announced on Sunday that it will not offer the Sri Lankan government new aid until the peace process in the country advances and has called on other nations to increase the pressure on Colombo.

The development ministry has redirected 19 million euros ($25 million) originally earmarked for Sri Lanka to Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the tsunami.