“I grow rice to feed my family. But the earthquake destroyed the irrigation canals here and I haven’t been able to plant any rice since then” says Mr Nur. His story is a common one. The devastating earthquake that struck West Sumatra on September 30, 2009, left 1,117 people dead and more than 130,000 houses severely damaged. Landslides seriously deteriorated irrigation systems in rural areas where most people farm rice for food.

Economic support and rehabilitation of irrigation systems

ACTED is running a Cash-for-Work programme to provide immediate economic support for over 1,000 of the most vulnerable families in nine villages that were seriously affected by the earthquake. ACTED also provided emergency shelter for families whose houses were destroyed or badly damaged.

The Cash-for-Work beneficiaries are working on projects to rebuild community infrastructure and have also provided assistance in rubble clearance and emergency shelter construction for families that needed this help. The communities have chosen projects that meet their most pressing needs, including reconstructing community washing facilities and building retaining walls to support bridges and key access roads.

Many villages have prioritised the rehabilitation of irrigation canals which were damaged, blocked or destroyed by landslides. This will be critical for the recovery of livelihoods in West Sumatra and for minimising ongoing dependence on external aid. Nevertheless, ACTED immediately engaged in the restoration of irrigation systems after the earthquake.

“I thank God for the money I get from ACTED so I can buy food and basic household items,” explains Mr Nur, who lives in the village of Sini Air. “And when we finish the work we’ll be able to grow rice again.”

At the start of the programme, the villages elected project committees through public meetings. These committees played a leading role in the identification of beneficiaries for the programme and the selection of the projects to be implemented. ACTED field staff then checked that the beneficiaries met vulnerability criteria, prioritising households whose shelter and livelihoods were seriously affected, families on very low incomes and female, disabled or elderly headed households.

ACTED has been careful to ensure that the cash-for-work programme does not undermine the traditional local practice of Gotong-Royong. Gotong-Royong is a system through which people work without payment on community projects for a small amount of time each month. Therefore, the cash-for-work programme concentrates on major reconstruction works that are beyond the capacity of Gotong-Royong and is only running in the three months following the earthquake, during which normal livelihoods are badly disrupted. Initial monitoring missions clearly revealed that communities understood this cash-for-work project would not replace Gotong-Royong, and that they would restart voluntary work once the tasks to be carried out became feasible for this system, and their livelihoods restored.

The economic support and rehabilitation work of this programme are vital to the communities. But the impact of ACTED’s intervention goes beyond that, says Mr Nur. “The opportunity to work and share a joke together every day has really lifted our spirits after the trauma of the earthquake. Now I think we can emerge from this stronger than ever.”