Disaster office:People don't have to return to unsafe homes

Transcript

The National Disaster Management Office in Solomon Islands says it is working hard to find safe areas for flood victims still in evacuation centres to re-settle.

Its spokesperson, George Herming, says it is still surveying the damage in badly-hit areas and will produce a resettlement scheme for victims soon.

But he says allegations that people in evacuation centres are being encouraged to leave to return to their unsafe homes, and that they are not being given enough aid, are incorrect.

GEORGE HERMING: The government is urging people who still living in evacuation centres, especially people whose homes were not badly affected or totally washed away during the floods to return to their communities and start to rebuild their lives once again.

MARY BAINES: What are those people who have very badly damaged houses? What is going to happen to them, are they allowed to stay in the evacuation centres for as long as they want?

GH: Yes. Those are the people that government is trying to assist, especially to keep them at evacuation centres until such time when they are able to rebuild together with assistance from the government. The focus is displaced people at the moment. But for those whose homes were not badly damaged they were urged to return home and start rebuilding their lives once again. Government is doing all its best to assist, together with its humanitarian partners.  

MB: The Disaster Victims Coalition Team 2014 told me that they want to be relocated to a better evacuation centre.

GH: There are still ongoing discussions. Most of the discussions were focussed on people living along the Matanikau River area, one of the worst hit areas in Honiara. The government is working on ways to try and see if there is a possibility of relocating these people to other sites or locations which are safe enough for them to settle. The question of whether people are allowed to stay at the Matanikau River banks is still in discussion at the moment, and authorities will be coming out with plans on whatever resettlement scheme that will be in place in the medium-term. The ownership of the land along the Matanikau River area, most of them were customary, and very few is owned by government. Those kinds of issues, especially on land ownership, is going to be an important point for consideration and discussions.