NIAS SHIPPING LOG JAM

Our team managed to get a place on the ferry and they are now driving to Gomo in SE Nias. The volunteers will help Dr Laia to remove rubble from his home to make space for the family packs. Unfortunately the second vehicle ferry has broken down again and our 4 trucks are stuck in Sibolga. IOM are planning to transfer the cargo to wooden cargo ships and then reload to trucks in Nias.... transport infrastructure is clearly not coming close to coping with the volume of material heading for Nias and the reconstruction phase is just starting.

Consider that a displaced family may have received a tent (60kg), some clothes (10kg) a food delivery (20kg) and maybe some kitchen items (10kg) = 100 kg in the past month since WFP and IOM got organized with Landing craft and truck convoys.

The materials for a typical framed house with a concrete floor will weigh say 20 tons and about half of that must be imported so assume 10 tons. So to build houses for each displaced family will require 100 months at the current rate of delivery! A masonry house will require about 20 tons of imported material. Then comes public infrastructure etc etc.

Can the people of Nias wait 10 years or more for shelter? Of course not! If only 25% of homes in Nias need to be rebuilt (estimates are much higher) we will be looking at 25,000 buildings or 250,000 tons of shipping for homes alone. That is 350 tons per day for the next 2 years. Current ferries and barges that carry trucks can maybe cope with 100-150 tons per day when they are working to full capacity. (these numbers dont include other goods, infrastrucure materials, food and consumable supplies)

More ships are needed urgently to get supplies to major towns let alone to the remote areas we have been supporting.