The Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to provide a 6-million-US-dollar grant to the Indonesian government to improve the environment in Aceh, which was severely hit by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami.

The aid will originate from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) program, director of the ADB representative office for Indonesia, Edgar A. Cua, said on Wednesday.

Of the funds, 2.5 million US dollars will be used to improve the living standard of people in Aceh Besar and North Aceh districts, 1.5 million US dollars to rehabilitate coral reefs and mangrove and 2 million US dollars to build houses for tsunami victims, Antara news agency quoted Edgar as saying.

Aceh, which is in the process of recovering from the Dec. 26 tsunami, is in dire need of building 115,000 new houses, which would cost around 1.4 billion US dollars.

Over 220,000 people were killed and more than a half million other were made homeless after the tsunami devastated coastal areas of the province in northern tip of Sumatra island on Dec. 26 last year.

Source: Xinhua