DNV's Marte Ness was appointed a Red Cross water delegate in November 2004. One month later, a tsunami devastated the coastal areas of Aceh, Indonesia killing more than 170,000 people and leaving half a million homeless. Marte Ness spent nine months in Aceh providing water to the victims as a Red Cross delegate.

The tsunami made huge damages.

The Norwegian Red Cross and villagers in front of a newly built latrine.

This girl is being treated for lumonia she contracted from swallowing dirty seawater after the tsunami.

Marte Ness was a member of the Red Cross emergency response team that went to Aceh in early January 2005.
“We brought with us a 100-bed field hospital that we set up in three days. I spent the next four weeks supplying water to the hospital and had my first rewarding experiences as a humanitarian relief worker,” she explains.

Later, she took up a six-month posting on Simeulue off the coast of Indonesia as manager of the Norwegian Red Cross projects on the island.

“First we rehabilitated a water supply system that was badly damaged by earthquakes. Then we started to work on simple water and sanitation solutions in villages, based on the participation and involvement of the villagers,” she says.

Some villages had wells made salty by the tsunami. In most places, wells were poorly constructed, too shallow, and poorly protected. The lack of latrines was striking. Children suffered from diarrhoea due to poor sanitation and lack of hygiene awareness.

Water and sanitation programme
Marte Ness started a water and sanitation programme building latrines and shallow wells in the villages. The villagers provided local materials and labour. The Norwegian Red Cross filled in the gaps with technical expertise and materials from the mainland.

“We also had sessions on hygiene promotion in the mosques. Especially the women became very involved in how they could break the chain of behaviour leading to disease through simple measures such as hand washing and safe storage of water,” Marte Ness explains.

The project is still on-going and will cover 14 villages by the time it is completed. Approximately 10,000 people will then have access to clean water and latrines.

Privileged
“I feel very privileged to have been able to contribute to the tsunami relief efforts in such a direct way,” she concludes.