The grant will come from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, administered by the Philippines-based ADB.

Already a cause of concern even before the tsunami disaster, the health and nutrition status of Aceh residents has worsened with higher rates of diarrheal diseases and an increasing malaria threat after the near complete breakdown of basic social services, an ADB statement said.

The giant waves killed more than 130,000 people in Indonesia alone.

The grant will finance the training of nutritionists, nurses, and midwives, as well as teachers and religious leaders in health and nutrition promotion, it added.

"While relief interventions were important in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, they need to be replaced as soon as possible by community-led rehabilitation services," said ADB social development specialist Karin Schelzig Bloom.

The project will be carried out in the densely populated provincial capital Banda Aceh and in the Aceh Besar, Aceh Barat, and Aceh Utara districts, all of which hold large numbers of displaced tsunami survivors.

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