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AT 7.39AM on 2 April 2007 a massive undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated parts of Western and Choiseul provinces in the western Solomon Islands. Fifty two people were killed. Most of the dead were children.

The Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office says 36,000 people were affected by the disaster. Six thousand houses were destroyed or damaged. People’s lives were turned upside down when roads connecting communities were ripped apart, bridges and wharves washed away, and clinics flooded.

“It was a very, very big earthquake, very different to the small earthquakes we get from time to time,” says Betsy Riqeo, a resident of hard-hit Gizo town. “The aftershocks kept coming for days afterwards, making us think the big one was coming back.”

In describing the tsunami, Ms. Riqeo says, “it wasn’t noticeable at first. It wasn’t a big wave. Without warning the sea level seemed to suddenly rise before our eyes then it swept everything away.”

Thousands of people were left homeless by the disaster. Many of them relocated to the Gizo town hilltop area in Western Province and set up makeshift camps there. Gizo was closest to the epicenter of the earthquake and sustained some of the worst damage in the tsunami’s wake.

Asinatha Leong was making breakfast for her husband before he went to work at Gizo prison. Her children were still sleeping. When she felt the large earthquake, she collected the children and ran outside. Moments later her husband noticed the sea rising, and they relocated to the hill behind their house. They made it there in time to see their home and possessions being swallowed by the tsunami. Now living in the Gizo hill top camps, Ms. Leong says she feels safe in the hills and is afraid to return to her coastal village.

Gizo hospital on the town’s shoreline was badly damaged by the tsunami, making it necessary for an interim hospital to be established in the Gizo hilltops for a couple of weeks in the aftermath of the disaster. Seven babies were delivered by the small medical team there during that time. Dr Kenton Sade, head of the emergency department at Honiara’s Referral Hospital was sent to the disaster zone, the day after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit. “I was mainly treating people for deep cuts and broken bones in those early days after the tsunami. The local people have never experienced something like this before and have been traumatized by the disaster,” he says.

The Government requested the Asian Development Bank, on the basis of a Cabinet decision, to coordinate the overall reconstruction and rehabilitation process. ADB responded to the tsunami disaster by initiating an emergency response mission from April 6 to 24, dispatching staff to support infrastructure assessments, communications, programming and donor coordination. Staff and local consultants visited the affected areas, supported the Ministry of Infrastructure Development in carrying out initial infrastructure damage and needs assessment, and provided strategic advice to the Government in defining and establishing the process toward recovery.

The team also engaged with the Government, and staff specializing in disaster risk management were fielded to assist the Government in the management of the transition phase and to assist in the coordination and drafting of the Damage Assessment and Rehabilitation Plan.

ADB has approved a $4.95 million grant from its Asian Development Fund (ADF) to help finance a project which will rehabilitate and rebuild damaged infrastructure. The Solomon Islands Government and ADB will partner on an Emergency Assistance Project and extensive interaction and cooperation with other development partners will be key.

“The goal of the Emergency Assistance Project is to restore the economic and social activities in affected areas to pre-disaster levels through the rehabilitation of essential infrastructure. Restoring roads, wharves, and bridges, will facilitate recovery, rural development, poverty reduction, and growth,” says Philip Erquiaga, Director General of ADB’s Pacific Department. “The affected areas generate a large share of Solomon Islands’national output through fisheries and agriculture. Choiseul and Western Provinces attract much of Solomon Islands’ tourism.”

The approved project, which will be cofinanced by the European Commission, will be implemented from 2007-2009. It will finance rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure, including about 35 kilometers of roads, 19 bridges, about four wharves, one jetty, and the Gizo town water supply and sanitation system. This effort will be closely aligned with ongoing ADB supported infrastructure projects in Solomon Islands.

“The disaster also revealed the importance of reducing vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. The Emergency Assistance Project will address these issues through improved planning and disaster recovery coordination, and build capacity to design and implement more robust engineering solutions,” said the project team leader and ADB Transport Specialist Robert Guild.

ADB’s Senior Project Implementation Officer Rishi Adhar began initial infrastructure damage assessments just days after the tsunami in the affected areas of Western and Choiseul provinces. “I walked 23 kilometers of road on Choiseul Island and 17 kilometers of road on Gizo Island and witnessed the significant damage firsthand, recording information and speaking to the local people there. Bridges and jetties were washed away, cutting off people from their gardens, markets, clinics and schools,” adds Mr. Adhar. The disaster affected areas are very remote with limited infrastructure, and this will present likely challenges during the rehabilitation phase. “We must also remember Solomon Islands is still very much a post conflict environment and we must be sensitive to this fact in all aspects of our work,” says Mr. Adhar.

Solomon Islands comprises almost 1000 islands only a third of which are inhabited. It stretches 1448 kilometers (900 miles) in a south easterly direction from the border of Papua New Guinea to the border of Vanuatu. The tsunami affected area of Choiseul is one of the biggest islands in the archipelago.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Richard Dictus who visited the disaster affected areas says, “Initially it was a real struggle to come to terms with how big and how strong the impact of the tsunami was. It’s hard to get good data in the Pacific in the best of times, and in the wake of a disaster it’s even harder.” He says development partner coordination during the rehabilitation phase of the disaster will be crucial. “You have to be careful when you’re dealing with an emotional term like tsunami, as you don’t want to exaggerate details about its magnitude and impact. From lessons learned during the experience of the 2004 Asian tsunami, the entire development community is extremely committed to solving the problems associated with the earthquake and tsunami experience in Solomon Islands,” says Mr. Dictus.

Fisherman Amon Tauman says he is lucky that his coastal home in Gizo is still standing, but he and his family lost all of their possessions in the tsunami. Living up in the Gizo camps, he is looking for an assurance from authorities that it is safe to return to their home. Mr. Tauman is unable to fish right now, because his boat washed away in the disaster. “We are looking forward to returning to our normal lives that we had before the “rippling waves came.”

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