Indonesia hands over 100,000th tsunami house in Aceh

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia held a ceremony Friday to hand over the 100,000th rebuilt house in Aceh and Nias, which were devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, an official said.

Mirza Keumala, spokesman of the agency overseeing reconstruction in the wake of the deadly tsunami, said the formal affair took place in Teunom village, Aceh Jaya district.

He said 138 houses, which included the 100,000th, were symbolically handed over to residents in the village, which was in one of the areas worst hit by the tsunami. The catastrophe claimed 168,000 Indonesian lives.

"We wanted to give a morale boost to the people here in rebuilding their district," he told AFP by telephone, adding that people still faced daily challenges here as the infrastructure remained in poor condition.

Keumala said that reconstruction of a targeted 120,000 houses was expected to be complete by April 2008, and despite the formal ceremony on Friday, 103,000 have now been finished.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh-Nias (BRR), warned in October that the completion of homes did not mean the housing problem was over.

Some of the houses rebuilt since then have remained unoccupied or are of poor quality, while others still lack essentials such as drainage or electricity, he said at the time, pledging that the problems would be solved.