More than half of those who lost their livelihoods in last year's St Stephen's Day tsunami are now back in work, a report said today.
Oxfam's Back to Workstudy said 60 per cent of people who lost their jobs as a result of the disaster were now earning a living again and that was expected to rise to 85 per cent by the end of next year.
The research, carried out across the tsunami-devastated region, showed that one million jobs were lost following the disaster and two million people were threatened with being pushed into poverty.
Director of Oxfam Barbara Stocking
It said 64,000 hectares of agricultural land were damaged and contaminated - an area the size of 160,000 football pitches.
In Aceh, unemployment rocketed from 7 per cent to 33 per cent and in the affected districts of Sri Lanka it more than doubled, from 9 per cent to 20 per cent.
The worst-affected livelihoods were fishing families, small-scale farmers, labourers, those running small businesses and the tourism sector.
According to the report, 65 per cent of the fishing fleet in Sri Lanka was destroyed, along with 10 out of 12 fishing ports. In Aceh, 70 per cent of the fishing fleet was wiped out and in India 70,000 boats were destroyed or damaged.
But the report said there were encouraging signs that economies were recovering one year on. Some 84 per cent of the fishing boats destroyed in Sri Lanka have been rebuilt or replaced and catches are improving.
By 2007 a total of 1.4 million people in the region will have been lifted out of the poverty that they were forced into by the tsunami, the report said. But it estimated it will take between two and five years for soil to return to full productivity.
Other problems include some fishing communities being given new land which is too far away from the sea to sustain their livelihoods, the report said.
Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam, said: "One year on, well over half of people who lost their jobs are already back at work, most of the destroyed fishing boats have been replaced and thousands of hectares of farm land have been cleared and replanted.
"There are, of course, problems that remain and continued support is essential if we are to safeguard the progress made.
"But the public's generous response and the resilience of local people has made the rebuilding of people's livelihoods one of the most impressive aspects of the entire aid operation," she said.
PA