03 October 2005, Pidie - A local woman at an FAO Project office that has helped fish farmers rebuild and maintain fish farms in the area. Aceh province was the worst affected of all the Indian Ocean areas hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. The tsunami destroyed the earthen banks of the fishponds and filled the ponds with debris and toxic silt. More than half of Aceh's 44 000 hectares of fishponds were destroyed, according to an FAO survey.
FAO Project: TCP/INS/3002 (04/XII/INS/205) - Emergency assistance to support the rehabilitation in earthquake/tsunami affected areas. The overall objective of the project is to assist the government's efforts for a rapid re-establishment of sustainable income-generating activities that were destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami. The project beneficiaries are the poor artisanal fishing and farming communities in the affected regions who lost their production assets and subsequently the means to support their livelihood and who are unlikely to meet the immediate food needs of their families without assistance. The project will make available basic fishery sector inputs and crop sector inputs, if needed, to kick-start activities in the worst affected areas for an approximate 8 700 beneficiaries. The typology of basic agricultural and fisheries inputs will be confirmed during the inception mission of the international consultant in collaboration with the national consultants and local government authorities. The lead national consultant will be responsible for drawing up final beneficiary selection criteria, in close consultation with relevant local authorities, in order to ensure that project interventions are focussed on the most vulnerable earthquake/tsunami-affected households and for ensuring that these criteria are applied in a fair, transparent and effective manner. The main project outputs will be: Increased food security for the most vulnerable disaster-affected families; Rehabilitation of exposed/denuded areas and restoration of sustainable agriculture-based livelihood activities in the most affected agricultural areas; Formulation of an action plan and additional project proposals which could be submitted to other possible donors.