Getting Back Home: Impact on Property Rights of the Indian Ocean Earthquake-Tsunami 2004

For many of the survivors of the earthquake-tsunami that smashed into the coastlines
of countries bordering the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004, their property rights
were the only assets that survived with them. Even these sometimes tenuous rights to
space for shelter, cultivation and trade were imperilled by this terrible disaster and its
equally overwhelming aftermath. This paper tries to identify how the property rights
of the survivors can be restored, secured and, where possible, enhanced.