Almost one year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Maldives still needs more help to revive its economy and bring the people's life back to normal.

The Maldivian government has said 82 people were killed, 26 others went missing and 11,232 people were displaced in the deadly tsunami that devastated the Indian Ocean coasts on Dec. 26, 2004.

"The figure is not very big. But to a small country with a population of less than 300,000, the disaster is as serious as 911 attack to the United States," said Mohamed H. Shareef, spokesman of the Maldivian government.

The government put the island nation's recovery and reconstruction bill at 374.9 million U.S. dollars, covering the areas of housing, transport, water and education, among others.

"The international community has committed about 261.9 million dollars, and we have a shortage of about 113 million dollars. We need more help," said Shareef.

As of the end of October, the government has completed repair of 825 houses, and the work on another 1,320 houses was ongoing. However, about 3,000 other houses remained unrepaired.

Although the government has made great efforts to provide shelter for the Internally Displaced Populations (IDPs), only about 2,000 were hosted in their own houses as of Oct. 31.

The other IDPs were still being hosted in other houses, temporary shelters or tents.

As some analysts pointed out, the real damage for the tiny archeological country came well after the tsunami as tourism, accounting for 80 percent of its economy, was badly hit by the waves.

For the Maldives, the damage to tourism assets was estimated at 100 million dollars, but lost revenue from its post-tsunami tourist drop-off has added another 130 million dollars to the losses, according to industry sources.

The Maldives carried out an aggressive marketing campaign through its Tourism Promotion Board in 2005, which included inviting travel agents in Europe to the Maldives and advertising on international media.

By November, tourist arrivals in the Maldives, which attracts most of its visitors from Europe, were only 348,471, about 39 percent lower from the same 11-month period the previous year.

Six of the 21 resort islands damaged in the tsunami are yet to reopen, and reports immediately after the disaster that 69 of the 199 inhabited islands had been entirely covered by the tidal waves had negative effects on the country's tourism industry.

Hamdun Hameed, minister of planning and national development told Xinhua that three sectors needed to be paid more attention in the near future.

"The first is the harbor infrastructure as most of harbors in the country were damaged to some extent during the tsunami. If they can not be repaired soon, the damage will be more serious," said Hameed.

Hammed said the second sector is the sewage system in the tsunami-hit islands as the tidal waves mixed drinking water system with the waste water system, threatening the health of the residents.

The third sector is the electricity system in the islands as most electricity wires buried underground were damaged by the tsunami, said Hammed.

The minister estimated that the country's economy would contract by about 5 percent in 2005, adding that the economy could only resume increase in 2006 or 2007.

Jerry Talbot, head of the international federation of red cross and red crescent societies delegation to the Maldives, said the relief and reconstruction work of the Maldivian government was very efficient.

Talbot, beginning his work in the Maldives only after the tsunami, said his organization was planning to set up a permanent office in the Maldives to facilitate its program in the country as the rebuilding process will take more time than originally expected.

Source: Xinhua