HUMAN TSUNAMI

SIFALAGOSUSUA is typical of many hill top villages in central Nias. It is dominated by a huge timber "Rumah Adat" that once housed the village heads entire family and protected them from warring neighboring villages. For centuries Nias had a classic feudal society as a result of population pressure on the island's very limited productive land. River flats were converted to rice long ago but villages were always built on hill tops to advantage the defenders.

After all the flat land had been converted to rice, the forested slopes were cleared and slash and burn agriculture destabilized huge areas of steep land.



The area around SUSUA is the poorest and most heavily populated in all of rural Nias. 5 years ago, torrential rains unleashed landslides that blocked rivers and when the debris dams collapsed, flood waves killed thousands and swept away or buried many of the most productive rice fields. The tragic situation was very much man made. Agricultural practices and population pressure have combined to create man made tsunamis.


Anyone who has spent time on the ground in Aceh will be jolted by this image. The high tide mark of what can best be described as a human tsunami - mountain top GOMO

Desperation has led to more and more steep land being burned bare every year. Our 14km trek to the village followed ancient stone walking paths and every so often a small concrete bridge testified to a plan to build a road at some future date. Unfortunately huge sections of these old paths had been buried by land slides and these sections were dangerous and clearly no longer able to support any kind of road. In some places we climbed over mud slides that had been released by the earthquake or possibly heavy rains since the quake loosened large areas of unstable ground.




We forded major rivers 7 times during our trek and it is hard to imagine the Government ever justifying the investment needed to build large bridges to access the valleys let alone the ridge tops.



The SUSUA area will probably never have road access or even motor cycle paths and the 12,000 strong population will have to face trekking 14 km along precarious trails to bring in enough food to survive.



Health is a luxury under these circumstances and to bring some hope of future opportunity for the huge number of children in the area is a massive challenge. If nothing is done, human tsunamis will be the only population control. GOMO is center stage for the island's most acute problems and a chance for all NGOs to make a difference.