PNG drought situation grim despite recent rain
Recent heavy rain across much of Papua New Guinea's Highlands seems to have done little to ease the severe drought affecting three million people.
Transcript
Recent heavy rain across much of Papua New Guinea's Highlands seems to have done little to ease the severe drought affecting three million people.
Several provinces are in the grip of the worst drought in decades because of the current El Niño system affecting much of the Pacific, and agencies dealing with it say the situation is getting even more grim.
Jamie Tahana reports.
Forecasters say this year's El Niño is the most severe since one in 1997 that caused a widespread humanitarian emergency across the region. Most PNG Highlands provinces have seen very litttle rainfall for months, which has killed crops and put severe pressure on peoples' water supplies. But last week, there were days of much-needed heavy rain. Noah Kool, the governor of Chimbu, one of the worst-affected provinces, says the rain was welcome respite and helped ease water supply pressures, but overall the crisis continues.
NOAH KOOL: Some parts of the provinces, they have experienced a lot of rain. But most parts of the provinces, they are still suffering now and more and more people are coming to my office seeking help, and I can't help.
PNG's government says about three million people are known to be affected by the drought, and it has released about 700 thousand US dollars in relief supplies for each affected district. Noah Kool says more and more desperate people are coming forward to seek help, but the money given to the districts in his province is running out fast. He says it's likely to be January before more government money reaches Chimbu and he's trying to find other ways to buy supplies.
NOAH KOOL: We've got this month and next month to go without any relief assistance so we are now looking at ways that we can help our people. My provincial government is standing by. We might use the development funds to help the people affected.
Mr Kool says there is a disconnect between Port Moresby and the affected provinces, and there needs to be clearer coordination to speed up the relief process. He says the government needs to swallow its pride and seek more international help. The resident coordinator for the United Nations in PNG, Roy Trivedy, agrees with the need for more coordination, and says with the El Niño expected to last well into next year, things could get much worse.
ROY TRIVEDY: We really need to make sure we coordinate and we really target our assistance because this drought is going to last until at least the first quarter of next year and we need to make sure that we're providing assistance. We're very aware that people are in need of this support and we need to make sure that it's provided as quickly as possible.
Mr Trivedy says the UNDP has also been working with the government to arrange a meeting with all the provincial disaster coordinators before the end of the month to work out what is needed. The secretary general of the Red Cross in PNG, Allison Dage, says there is already a desperate need for food supplies and drought-resistant crops as most people rely on growing their own food.
ALLISON DAGE: We need some drought-resistant seed. People in the country are subsistence farmers which means they rely every year on growing their own food. The region is usually high with rainfall so when they don't have much rain it does really affect them.
Roy Trivedy says with the drought forecast to possibly intensify over the summer, the UN and other international agencies, are stepping up their response.
ROY TRIVEDY: We are actually scaling up our support. We have had colleagues from the World Food Programme here for the last couple of weeks, they're looking at how to strengthen logistics support and also look at where we may be needed to provide targetted food relief.
Mr Trivedy says while last week's rain may not have solved the problem, it has eased pressure on water supplies and given people one other thing: hope.
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.