Some areas still waiting for relief after PNG quake – UN

12:27 pm on 19 March 2018

A United Nations co-ordinator in Papua New Guinea says three weeks after a devastating 7.5-magnitude earthquake, some areas are still to get relief.

Where the Tagari river use to run, Komo, Hela Province, PNG.

Photo: Bernard McQueen

The earthquake has killed at least 125 people and tens of thousands are in need of assistance.

Gerard Ng said many villages had been destroyed and the transient nature of their residents was making it hard to get aid to them.

"A lot of communities have displaced themselves away from their villages and their own communities and they are largely gathering around in large clusters of what they would call informal care centres.

"That's a point of concern for all of us because not all of them are being reached with relief supplies, especially around shelter and food and water. So there is a concerted effort right now to identify where these locations are."

Mr Ng said access ways were opening up and it was getting easier to deliver aid.

He said concerns were growing about the possibility of the spread of disease.

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