Thailand’s Coast, One Year After the Tsunami

TOM HAGLER,:

If the Indian Ocean tsunami exposed the region's geological faults, the aftermath has revealed the resourcefulness of the survivors. Thailand's Andaman Coast, which suffered extensive casualties and damage, has been a vast construction site for much of the past year. The laborers — all tsunami survivors — start at first light and work past dusk, seven days a week.

To date, they've built over 1900 homes for displaced families, a fourth of them since August. Most of the work has been sponsored by the Thai government, which initially received high marks for its ambitious rebuilding program. In recent weeks, however, families moving into government homes are wondering whether the reconstruction has been too rapid.

Two weeks ago, Mim Liu Laokum and her family moved into this house in Baan Nam Chem. Their native fishing village was all but annihilated by the tsunami.

MIM LIU LAOKUM:

I've been upset since we returned. We had a four bedroom home. Now twelve of us must live in one room — with no kitchen or bathroom. We weren't consulted at all.

TOM HAGLER:

The family recently leased a boat and started fishing again. The catch is good, but with most business gone and the tourist trade slack, prices are low.

MIM LIU LAOKUM:

Everything has changed. We had a business and it was doing well before the tsunami. There was a regular income from the fishing. Now there's a big drop in our earning It's difficult to make ends meet. The situation is uncomfortable. But people accept it, they're not complaining much, because that's just the way it is. And no one has the option of moving somewhere else.

TOM HAGLER:

The Laokum family's experience is increasingly common. Recent assessments by United Nations agencies have found substandard construction and unsuitable homes in many/several reconstructed villages. Hakan Bjorkman is Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP Thailand.

HAKAN BJORKMAN, UNDP:

Although the overall assessment is very positive on Thailand's response, there have been many problems. And the problems continue. And it relates mainly to the longer term recovery. There was not enough proper consultation and assessment of what people need, and what, what people want in the communities affected.

The obvious example is of course, in the area of housing, shelter. Where government and different agencies were building housing for people that might actually not fit their needs — wrong size, the wrong place, and just the wrong design. And of course, this is a very difficult challenge, because people need housing quickly. So you need to balance this urgency with getting it right.

TOM HAGLER:

Nowhere is the imbalance more evident than in the village of Baan Leam Pom in Kao Lak province. Yupin Chopaspastu has lived here for most of her 36 years. The village sits on a derelict tin mine, and is home to 40 families.

Yupin and her husband were working in nearby Phuket when the tsunami struck.

YUPIN CHOPASPASTU:

I saw the wave so I telephoned home. I told my sister to find my three sons and get out. But she said: Don't be silly, the sea is calm. The second wave struck and I called again. I said; "Look, you must get out!" She agreed to take it seriously and to look for my children. I tried calling again five minutes later but the phone was dead.

TOM HAGLER:

When those who did survive returned to this village, they soon found that everything was gone: their homes, their livelihoods, their families. The only thing they still possessed was their land. They soon found out that that was to be taken away too.

YUPIN CHOPASPASTU:

I arrived at my village and was stopped by guards armed with guns. They showed me a document from a company that said it had rights to all my land.

TOM HAGLER:

Yupin lost two sons died in the tsunami. The guards she encountered worked for a Bangkok-based construction company. In the tsunami's aftermath, the company asserted its property rights and began eviction proceedings against the villagers.

YUPIN CHOPASPASTU:

The area was fenced off. They stopped all the villagers from rebuilding, they stopped us looking for bodies of relatives. They said we didn't have the right to stay on this property. We were distraught — from the deaths and then from the eviction. My family has occupied this land for thirty years. We built it and cared for it when it was abandoned.

TOM HAGLER:

The National Human Rights Commission helped stay the eviction proceedings, and the families returned to the village in late February. While the courts investigate the legality of the company's claim, villagers have begun reconstructing their homes. Their future is uncertain.

HAKAN BJORKMAN:

Probably that one of the biggest obstacle to the longer term recovery of these communities is the issue of land. Land disputes, land grabbing, the problem of people going back to where they used to live, and find that somebody is, is there, claiming the right to that land.

Private interests have come in, taking advantage of the situation, and want to develop the land for tourism or other reasons. Of course it is shocking to see that people are having to face this problem after maybe having lost their family. They've lost their livelihood. And then they try to get back to normal, and they have lost their land as well.

TOM HAGLER:

It's usually the most vulnerable who are preyed upon. And in Thailand, none are more vulnerable than one particular ethnic minority: the Sea Gypsies.

AKOM SAMAS:

The whole village was destroyed. When we came back there were notices that our land was going to be taken and that we must leave immediately.

TOM HAGLER:

Akom Samas is a leader of the Sea Gypsy community in Thung Wah. Otherwise known as Moken, they're animist, ethnically separate seafaring nomads with a unique culture and language.

The Sea Gypsies of Thung Wah lost a quarter of their people to the tsunami, along with all their homes and boats. They were offered permanent housing a few kilometers inland, but refused and returned to Thung Wah — only to find that the land had been taken.

AKOM SAMAS:

A local government agency claimed our land — they said they needed to build a hospital. We rejected this and started rebuilding. Certainly there are some greedy people trying to benefit from our misfortune. We've been intimated and threatened by private investors and by land speculators.

TOM HAGLER:

A settlement of sorts was reached a few months ago: the Sea Gypsies were granted a five year lease on the land — or at least a portion of it. Over one third was taken for development.

AKOM SAMAS:

That area was taken over by the local administration. We let them take it, just to have a section of land to stay over here. Now we are all very concerned about the land tenure. We would like to construct a place for our children to stay on. Because after five years what's going to happen?

TOM HAGLER:

The Thung Wah Sea Gypsies were recently given new fishing boats. They're idle — much like the economy. The combination of unemployment, land seizures, and fatalities means the Sea Gypsies here are struggling to preserve not only their livelihood, but their very existence. Rakon Kolehlu traces his Sea Gypsy ancestry back ten generations.

RAKON KOLEHLU:

There are still difficulties, but we have enough to eat and are working now. We can only be fisherman, that's all we can do. Life can't be like it was before the tsunami, but we will fight to stay here. I hope the next generation — my son and my nephew — will go to sea and continue the tradition.

TOM HAGLER:

The Thai government expects the infrastructure will be restored to its pre-tsunami level in two years. While the Andaman Coast survivors are participating in the reconstruction, they're also learning to defend their property.