25 Jun 2003

Needs on Solomons Tikopia island to be reassessed

11:12 am on 25 June 2003

The Solomon Islands National Disaster Office says a new assessment of cyclone ravaged Tikopia will be made early next month.

Earlier MP Joses Sanga said the island, badly damaged by Cyclone Zoe six months, was further wrecked by Cyclone Gina two weeks ago.

He says this latest storm was followed by landslides which damaged dozens of buildings and destroyed many of the gardens replanted after Cylcone Zoe.

Mr Sanga says there needs to an urgent reassessment of the island and more relief supplies need to be sent.

But the director of the National Disaster Office, Loti Yates, says the relief programme for Tikopia has been ongoing since Zoe hit.

He says they have heard the reports of further damage but they need to be confirmed.

"We are going to put in a food and agriculture security assessment on the next trip which is probably next week or the week after and in that trip we'll have people from the ministry of agriculture to do an assessement on food security. It will only be then before we can really get information which is not biased."