500,000 PNG people face famine
500,000 PNG people face famine
PORT MORESBY (Reuters): An estimated 500,000 people in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are in urgent need of food and water, according to an official assessment of the worst drought to hit the South Pacific nation in 50 years.
PNG drought relief coordinator Peter Barter called on the government yesterday to release Kina 20 million (US$14 million) for drought relief as effects of the El Nio weather pattern bite hard.
"It is important that supplies of rice, flour and oil be purchased immediately so that Australian defense aircraft, due to arrive next week, could be utilized effectively in distributing relief supplies without any further delays," Barter said in a statement.
The initial findings of a 1,000-page drought report by 13 Australian teams who have visited more than 500 villages across the mountainous, jungle-clad nation were released yesterday.
The report assessed that some 500,000 people in 184 districts were critically affected by shortages of food and water, Barter said.
The PNG government had earlier estimated up to 700,000 of its 4.3 million citizens may be affected by the drought.
Almost 100 people are believed to have died as a result of the drought, government officials said. Most of the dead were either elderly or children and had succumbed to illnesses including dysentery and influenza.
Relief officials and international aid workers have said that no one in PNG is known to have starved to death.
The drought report, now the basis for a national emergency plan, graded each region on a scale of one to five, with five the most severely affected.
Barter said about 90,000 people were living in the most severely ravaged areas where they had no food, water or income.
About half of that number were living in villages where there were no roads, so their situation was even more critical, he said.
"Those numbers are going to increase from three to four and four to five very quickly, and probably it will peak out in mid- November or at the end of November."
But Barter said it was impossible to predict when the drought would ease.
"Although it may have rained in some areas, it could be months before food gardens became more productive and it was important that some of the funds be used to restore gardens' rural water supplies," he said.
Barter said only K4 million ($2.6 million) had been given to provincial governments so far to fight the drought. Assistance had been requested from Australia for support helicopters and aircraft, he said.
The Australian air force last month delivered emergency supplies to parts of PNG virtually inaccessible by land.
Barter said the effects of the drought could last into 1998.
About 50 percent of the country's schools had been closed as a side effect of the drought as people searched for food. Schools could possibly remain closed in the long term if villagers were unable to pay school fees, he said.
The drought has also had a major impact on the country's resources industry, bringing projects to a grinding halt.
Copper-laden barges remain marooned on the Fly River due to the drought that has halted operations at the Ok Tedi copper mine.
The giant Porgera gold mine in the highlands returned to full milling capacity only at the beginning of the month, after operations were suspended on Sept. 6 when reserves of water fell to critical levels.