A decade after the tsunami, two girls play on the beach in Banda Aceh. Photo: Ulet Ifansasti

Millions of dollars in foreign donations which flowed into Aceh after the Boxing Day tsunami a decade ago disappeared into the pockets of the province's new political elite despite a broadly successful and corruption-free reconstruction process.

Some money also went to build projects that are now empty, unused and decaying.

On the 10th anniversary of the gigantic wave which killed 167,000 people, and after $US7.7 billion in foreign reconstruction funds has been spent, Aceh is still one of the poorest provinces in Indonesia. Now the local government is planning to sell off its own forest reserve — the last place where orangutans, rhinos, elephants and tigers still live together — to make ends meet.

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The tsunami on December 26, 2004, prompted an until-then unprecedented outpouring of global aid and drove new peace negotiations that ultimately hastened the end of a bloody, 30-year separatist insurgency. 

The man in charge of the rebuild, highly regarded businessman and former minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, ran a process that delivered quick results, particularly in housing reconstruction, with minimal corruption.

"Things are normal in Aceh. Water is available; village roads are paved ... [the number of] people between nine and 13 who can read is higher than national average," he said recently.

But, according to Sidney Jones, of the Institute for the Policy Analysis of Conflict, Aceh has since seen "10 years of really lousy governance".

The former separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) had run the province since 2006, she said, and using them as contractors during the initial rebuilding had provided "short-term stability in exchange for long-term problems". 

Some former rebels had grown "extremely rich" on inflated tsunami reconstruction contracts, followed by ongoing work while the poor (including ordinary ex-combatants) were overlooked.

Aceh is now the sixth-poorest Indonesian province, according to national figures, has one of the worst high school failure rates in Indonesia, "huge drug problems" and rising infant mortality, Ms Jones said.

On the outskirts of the capital, Banda Aceh, a massive, internationally funded rubbish disposal facility lies idle as local governments refuse to start it up, reluctant to take responsibility for its running costs.

The Regional Integrated Sanitary Landfill project in Blang Bintang is a 206-hectare, state-of-the-art rubbish dump that purifies and recycles the water that leaches from rubbish. It is designed to process all Banda Aceh's waste and stop the current practice of dumping and burning it. It cost $11 million to build, largely with money from the United Nations Development Program, but has never opened. 

"Of course, I want this opened, as soon as possible," says Maidin, one of four security guards who are the only employees here. "Maybe the Australian government can help us push to get it open?"

A tsunami survivor and Aceh-based aid worker, Muslahuddin Daud, said it was "not just waste management, but a lot of other assets [in Aceh] that are not being utilised ... not maintained".

Mr Kuntoro, formerly the head of the Indonesian government's reconstruction authority, BRR, said the Aceh government had long been reluctant to to pay to operate facilities built during the recovery process. This included roads, ferries, hospitals and water supply plants.

"Before I left [in 2009] they came to me and said, 'where is the budget for maintenance and repair?' ... [But] I made a statement: 'You're on your own. You have no army to blame, no Javanese to blame, no non-Muslim to blame, so if something goes wrong, you just blame yourself'."

In the time since, Mr Kuntoro said, he had seen "no major private investment" in the province.

Mr Muslahuddin agreed: "Economic growth is constrained: private business is not really attracted to Aceh".

The government has meanwhile come up with a spatial plan which would allow logging and palm oil developers into the delicate Leuser ecosystem. Approval for the new plan is currently being delayed in Jakarta.

Foreign investors are partly deterred because Aceh is the only province in Indonesia where the criminal punishments in sharia are imposed. People are regularly flogged in punishment for breaking laws including consorting between unmarried couples, drinking alcohol, gambling and gay sex.

"Aceh will find it difficult to develop tourism, especially along wonderful west coast beaches, when you've got vigilante [Islamic students] patrolling the beaches," Ms Jones said.

"There is a real vigilantism that's emerged."