Supporter: Teron Moore

A day like any other, in a small village near the equator in West Sumatra, begins at 5 o'clock in the morning with a call on the loud speakers from the muezzin. As villagers pray to Allah, daybreak brings the inescapable heat that will stay until after nightfall. Today however, is not like any other day, as today is survey day.

As part of a two-year disaster risk reduction program, Mercy Corps is testing out an evaluation technique called cost-benefit analysis. The goal is to quantify in monetary terms the cost effectiveness of the awareness, education, skills training, capacity building and small infrastructure projects, which make up the Public Private Partnership for Disaster Management program.

Now, my training is in the social impacts of disaster and is far from economics-based, so it’s a good thing I am working with an economist intern at my side. Bringing us to the days activities, we are conducting a survey to collect data on the effects of a short tsunami evacuation route built from a high risk village near the ocean’s shore to a village on higher ground a few kilometers away. This evacuation route will, in times of disaster, help community members flee from an incoming wall of water caused by an offshore earthquake.

A Mercy Corps staffer in West Sumatra conducts a survey with Siti. Photo: Teron Moore for Mercy Corps

This program will not save houses or fields from begin damaged, but it will no doubt, reduce psychological trauma, injuries and lives lost in a tsunami. During normal times, this escape route will be used as any other road, bringing with it a route to transport goods, go to school, visit the doctor and talk to neighbors. For our purposes, these are the quantifiable economic impacts of our program, with important results for this rural community.

Siti is 55 years old and the head of her family. She earns a living by renting a small plot of land near the new escape route to plant, grow, tend and harvest rice and corn. Hers is not a life for the weak of body or spirit. Siti relates the fact that, with this new road, she will be able to transport her crops to market in half the time it would have taken her previously. This is not only an added convenience, but the extra efficiency will allow her to add significantly to her earnings of about $4 a day to support her and her family.

Sarinah is a single mother of four and the owner of a small café (think food stall with fried rice and instant noodles). For her, this route will allow her children to get to school faster and allow her to gather her daily supplies for cooking much more effectively. This increases her wages as she is able to open her stall earlier in the morning and prevent closures due to running our of supplies. Not unconnected to this expected extra income, Sarinah is in the process of fixing her home, which was severely damaged by the earthquake in September 2009.

These, and many other stories like these, are what make my experience in West Sumatra so valuable. While we struggle at our computers trying to figure out how to put a dollar value on saving a villager's time, I think of all the Sarinahs and Sitis, whose daily struggle is just a little bit easier thanks to this program. It makes the early mornings and oppressive heat a lot more bearable.

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