The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted August 25, 2009, 2:11 am by Piva Bell

Fulfilling Cot Paya village’s dreams

My recent visit to a small village named Cot Paya in Indonesia's Aceh province was my second trip here.

Dr. Musliman Saleh. Photo: Piva Bell/Mercy Corps

The first time I came here was in August 2005, when everything was the opposite of now, because it is one of the villages destroyed by the tsunami in December 2004. The areas had been cleaned by workers from various NGOs, but I still could witness that the houses, trees and everything were flat to the ground and the area had turned to swamp, with pools of brackish water everywhere, caused by the tsunami. Cot Paya's population before the tsunami was about 1,000 people, but after it was drastically reduced to only 189 people.

But now, after four years have passed by, the pulse of life of this village has started again. The survivors are settled down in the new houses built by various NGOs. Even survivors from other areas have come to settle down with them. People have started to live normally, having left behind all the horrors of tsunami that they had experienced before.

Today, Cot Paya has around 555 residents.

In my second trip to the village, I had the chance to meet the head of Cot Paya village, Dr. Musliman Saleh. He’s a very nice, optimistic and cheerful person. He helps manage Cot Paya village really well, and is very concerned with the prosperity of his village, since it still lacks public utilities in most of the houses.

This can be seen most clearly from the residents' problems in accessing clean water. The village has only one functioning water tower. Other water towers that were built right after tsunami cannot be used anymore, because thieves stole metal and machinery, and so the engines used to pump up the water are broken.

As a result, village residents have to buy clean water from other areas, which costs 2,500 Indonesian rupiah ($0.25) for just one small water container. And that's not enough to fulfill the needs of one person for a day's supply of clean water. Usually, they use the water for drinking water and cooking only. For taking a bath and other needs, they used the brackish, swampy water around that still sits in the village.

The village's water tower was vandalized and no longer works, forcing residents to buy water at high prices. Photo: Piva Bell/Mercy Corps

Furthermore, the tsunami caused most villagers to lose their previous jobs, and now more than 50 percent of residents are extremely poor. Most of them are working as construction workers, pedicab drivers and housemaids, with unstable small incomes. Usually, they use the money that they get in the afternoon, after a day's work, just to buy their dinner. Therefore, it is a big burden for them to pay any amount of money every day to buy clean water.

Another aspect of the village's resurgence is its multipurpose room, which is a 1,000 square-foot area used as the center for various village activities. The room is divided into two using a long green cloth. These ‘two rooms’ are used for the activities of women's education, women's small business activities and as a place for praying. Since it is an open room with no fence, at night livestock such as cows and goats like to sleep inside it, leaving a mess in the morning.

As a result of these challenges, the residents of Cot Paya are so relieved and thankful when Mercy Corps came and offered infrastructure assistance, including a water tower and rehabilitation of their multipurpose room. They have been dreaming about it for a long time.

I could feel and see the joy of the village head when he enthusiastically listened to the Mercy Corps field officers who came to discuss the planning of construction. What a happy moment.