A contract was signed between the Agency for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Aceh and Nias (BRR) and HAGSC for providing infrastructure implementation support services along the West Coast of the tsunami struck region of Aceh.
It has been over two years since the devastating tsunami caused unimaginable damage to Aceh and Nias. More than 230,000 people were killed or left missing, and communities, infrastructure and people’s livelihood were destroyed in mere minutes. Aceh’s West Coast was among the worst hit areas. In addition to the physical damage, the disaster caused enormous destruction of economic capacity and loss of institutional ability.
Under the Infrastructure Reconstruction Enabling Program (IREP), managed by the government-appointed BRR and partly financed by the Multi Donor Trust Fund, Technical Assistance will be provided to supervise the Planning, Design and Construction of Aceh’s infrastructure. The program consists of five focused consultancy components to be implemented over a 2.5 year period.
By signing the contract, Royal Haskoning has become the consultant for IREP 2, one of the five components which will focus at all district level infrastructure development on the worst hit West Coast of Aceh and the island of Simeulue. It will include the (re)construction of roads, bridges, harbours, water, waste and sanitation management and coastal protection.
Next to these reconstruction efforts, capacity building of the local and provincial authorities in the planning & implementation of annual budgetary planning & implementation cycles will be a substantial part of the services provided by Royal Haskoning.
Prior to the tsunami the physical infrastructure and institutional capacity in Aceh was very limited. As a result of the tsunami, this infrastructure and institutional capacity has been further reduced, severely impacting people’s livelihoods and the reconstruction efforts.
The total reconstruction and development program for Aceh and Nias is estimated to cost US$8-10 billion (2005-2009), making it the largest reconstruction program in the developing world.
The contract value of IREP 2, which is one of the largest programs under IREP, amounts to approximately Usd 8m, and includes the supervision over the planning, design and construction of projects worth an estimated Usd 150-200m. |
