The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved three grants totaling 6 million US dollars to help improve livelihoods, rehabilitate natural resources, and provide earthquake-resistant housing in tsunami-affected areas of Indonesia, an ADB news release said on Friday.

A grant of 2.5 million dollars will help develop sustainable livelihoods in the Aceh Besar and Aceh Utara districts in the Special Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam by providing technical, financial, and production assistance to small-scale fishers, farmers, and other members of fishing communities, especially women, according to the release.

Another 1.5 million grant will help raise incomes of poor coastal communities in the same project area by rehabilitating and sustainably managing 30 hectares of coral reefs and 300 hectares of mangrove resources damaged by the tsunami.

Last, a 2 million grant will develop prototypes of affordable and earthquake-resistant housing, and then build 300 units of 36 square-meter demonstration houses and building information centers in 16 tsunami-affected districts of Aceh and North Sumatra.

The tsunami left Indonesia with at least 126,000 people dead, over 94,000 missing, and more than 400,000 internally displaced. About 600,000 lost their property and economic assets, and approximately 1 million people in the coastal areas became poorer or worse off as a result of the disaster. The grants are from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, which is financed by the government of Japan. Enditem

Source: Xinhua