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Samoa

Rebuilding still continuing in Samoa eight months after tsunami

It is now just over eight months since Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga were hit by the devastating underwater earthquake and tsunami.

The disaster left nearly 200 people dead, many of whose bodies are yet to be recovered.

Worst hit was the South Coast of Samoa, which was one of the main tourist attractions for the island nation and overseas visitors figured heavily in those lost.

But now the villages and resorts are trying to rebuild, mostly in the hills above the old villages.

One of those is Saleapaga which lost over 30 from its community, most of them children.

Australian man Danny Robes has had a long association with the village, and on the day the wave hit, he was one of those nearly lost.

Since then he has provided Radio Australia with regular reports on the rebuilding, and now, he and wife are moving there permanently from their old home in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs.

Presenter: Campbell Cooney

Speaker: Danny Robes, Melbourne man who lives in Samoa

ROBES: The rebuilding of a new village upstate is proceeding excellently. The community hall should be completed within three months. The primary school should start by end of the year and be completed by February next year. Unfortunately there are still major details and meaning there is no supply of water. The water supply by the tankers it's irregular due to the fact the main road has been destroyed by the trucks and obviously bad weather. The Ministry of Transport have blocked the roads for any buses coming up, so people literally have to walk down to Lepa village and back which is about four kilometres with 20 and 10 litres containers. Apart from that people are happy, cheerful, new buildings are appearing in the new village, and obviously they're expecting our assistance in Saleapaga, because the government has discontinued any further assistance.

COONEY: So the period with the government were assisting with rebuilding materials and finance and that, that has come to an end now has it?

ROBES: That has come to the end. Let's put it this way, I spoke with the Prime Minister four weeks ago and I was informed that the government is no longer involved. The contractors are taking over but the progression upstate is relatively slow. Some families to this date have not received any funding for assistance from the government. The bottom part or the original village of Saleapaga, it's still a wasteland, hasn't been reclaimed or cleaned up. What you can see now the tropical overgrowth has covered up all the huge scars left by the tsunami, and only four families are living on the beach front at this point of time. So the top part is growth, top part is slowly dry, but the bottom part is lagging behind. There's only one small resort Faofao, which sprang up from the ruins, but it's more or less you can call it temporary resort with no electricity, there's no phone lines, no connection from the outside world, only by mobile phones. The rest is wasteland, there's nothing happening.

COONEY: We did hear some concerns raised from some academics and the like in New Zealand about the quality of the buildings that are replacing the old buildings. From where you are and from what you're seeing being built, do you think it's up to standard?

ROBES: Well I would say actually more up to standard, 90 per cent of the buildings are built from concrete blocks with reinforced steel, so they are cyclone-proof and earthquake-proof. Thanks to Habitat from New Zealand voluntary group, they have embarked from day one from that meeting in November last year, to build new houses or assist building new houses but with a New Zealand and Australian building standards. So I would dismiss that type of suggestion.

COONEY: Looking along the other parts of the coast, Lalomanu, Lepa, you mentioned as well and other areas which very much relied on the tourist dollar, how is rebuilding going along the rest of that south coast of Samoa?

ROBES: Well you mentioned Lalomanu, Lalomanu has already completed the first two stages of the tourist developments. There are fales just as there were before the tsunami, and those are not cyclone-proof nor earthquake-proof. Further on past Lalomanu, Vasau and so there is cleanup operations going, also they are experiencing water shortages. Going back to Lepa, Lepa as such did not have any resort in the village. Vavau was a resort which has been cleaned up but hasn't started because it's owned by a foreigner although it's owened by foreign people, at the moment they have no intention doing anything. Going past that Potasee village had no resorts, going further down to Sinalei resort that has been little affected so it's full, 100 per cent. Coconut Beach, which has been badly affected, it's 80 per cent completed. Seabreaze is slowly construction, they are building new bungalows on a cliff there but the restaurant hasn't been started as yet. They anticipate it will take further two to three years to complete the whole project.

COONEY: Are we starting to see the tourists back there Danny?

ROBES: No, a few people, backpackers, we've seen four backpackers at Saleapaga, Faofao. Lalomanu gets a few people from Apia on the weekend. Through the week it's basically empty. That's what we predicted last year when the question was asked and we said in our view it will take two to three years of development with assistance of tourist authority which however they are a little bit lagging behind. I'll give you an example, the beaches haven't been cleaned up at all, that means there's still quite a bit of debris on the sand, there's a lot of debris in the water which is a health hazard, like big rocks, sticking out, steel, corrugated iron still there. That has to be cleaned up.

COONEY: Now you spent already a lot of the time over there with the people of Saleapaga, you're about to move over there permanently now?

ROBES: Yes.

COONEY: Looking forward to it?

ROBES: Absolutely.

COONEY: Why is that?

ROBES: Well I'm at a retirement age, and secondly I can assist with my wife to start to develop Saleapaga to be a nice resort, and obviously assist the village, and slow progress doing things there. It was our ambition what we experienced through tsunami and after the tsunami that we be asked and requested to come and stay for good because they appreciate us that's what we did through those years, and we really love those people.

Disclaimer

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
© ABC