A New Zealand Red Cross delegate says people in the Marshall Islands will be struggling for some time in terms of water, and especially food.
About 11 thousand people in the outer islands are suffering from the drought, with major rain water supplies exhausted, ground water unsafe to drink, and crops that are dying or dead.
New Zealand Red Cross Aid workers produced over 12 thousand litres of water in a recent trip, and left behind a machine capable of making another 4000 litres of fresh water a day.
Red Cross delegate and Water engineer, Ana Zarkovic, says very dry weather is expected til at least the end of June, especially on the hard to reach Northern atolls.
And she says people travelling to other villages for safe drinking water has also causing been causing social tension.
"We have got reports that community tension started rising because of the drought, because additional population put stress on the resources of communities. So the fact that we supplied them with safe drinking water eased some of the community tensions that were building up."
Red Cross delegate, Ana Zarkovic.
