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BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA (15 March 2005) - At 55, Nurmina is mothering full-time again - but in a crowded tent far from home.

Her granddaughter, Deliana, aged 2, has been her full time charge since her daughter, Deliana's mother, was swept away in the December 26, 2004 tsunami.

"I was tending our chili patch on a mountain [when the tsunami struck] and my granddaughter was with me," says Nurmina, who is from Lhoong district on the west coast of Aceh province.

When they came down the hill, their family - Nurmina's husband, son and two daughters - and home had disappeared, buried beneath black swampy debris.

A stunned Nurmina, carrying Deliana, stumbled through hellish terrain for over 40 km to reach Banda Aceh around midnight, 16 hours later.

Since then, Nurmina and a few hundred Lhoong villagers, have encamped on the front lawn of the Department of Water Resources in Banda Aceh.

Rocking her granddaughter in a hammock, Nurmina airs no complaint about the noise or lack of privacy in the tent, nor about the midday heat or nighttime insects. But she is concerned about the "waiting, waiting, waiting" for news as to when she and her fellow villagers might be able return home and get on with their lives.

She may have to wait awhile.

Not only is the west coast road inaccessible 20 km beyond Banda Aceh - because of damaged roads and bridges - but providing new housing for large numbers of people is no mean task.

Over half a million people in Aceh province are homeless like Nurmina as a result of the tsunami. Some have sought refuge with extended families and about 10,000 have moved into barracks, but many remain in tents.

Altogether, the giant wave flattened some 115,000 houses and severely damaged another 150,000. The cost for housing rehabilitation is estimated at $573 million. This breaks down into $147 million to repair damaged homes and $426 million to build new ones.

To help meet the enormous housing needs, ADB is preparing substantive grant financing proposals from its new ADB Asian Tsunami Fund. Some US$300 million from the grant fund has been earmarked for Indonesia and will be used for rehabilitation and reconstruction in several sectors.

However, providing the funds may be the easier part of a complicated process. The loss of records means that issues of titling need to be resolved. Also, the daunting task of clearing land of debris has to be addressed.

"The government wants to grant a 36 square meters core house to all affected families, but there is debate about the type and cost of housing," says Florian Steinberg, an ADB Housing and Urban Development Specialist.

One government agency is proposing units that cost Rp. 22.4 million (US$ 2,460) each, but others think these units are expensive and of inadequate quality, and it is still unclear whether they are resistant to earthquakes or can be expanded and modified.

Housing also has to be considered along with water, sanitation and power requirements and, at another level, transport services and health, education and recreational facilities.

Demand is so huge that the Indonesian planning agency, BAPPENAS, will likely consider several housing delivery mechanisms, including community-based housing, private and public supply, self-help housing and NGO-provided housing, says Mr. Steinberg.

For rural folk like Nurmina, there is another critical snag. BAPPENAS plans to introduce a two-kilometer "security belt" along the coastline which would place mangrove swamps and fishponds between villages and the sea.

"The problem is that 80% of displaced villagers say they want to go home," says Mr. Steinberg. "Frankly, how are you going to stop them? That land is the only asset left for most of them."

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