26 Apr 2016

Thousands still in need in Fiji months after cyclone

7:30 am on 26 April 2016

Nearly 50,000 students in Fiji affected by Cyclone Winston still need replacement books and other learning material.

Navunibitu Catholic School and dormitory on the Kings Rd Ra Fiji

Navunibitu Catholic School and dormitory on the Kings Rd Ra Fiji Photo: Alex Perrottet/RNZ

Fiji also needs millions more vegetable cuttings and thousands of households still need improved shelter two months after the storm.

The gaps are identified in the latest report from the UN's humanitarian affairs agency OCHA (Office of the Commission for Humanitarian Affairs).

It says US$20 million more is needed for shelter alone or thousands of families will continue to live in makeshift dwellings and without critical training on how to build for another cyclone.

Three and a half million more plant cuttings are required to ensure food security after 80 percent of new seedlings were washed away in the recent floods.

Three quarters of those needing psychosocial support have received it and of the quarter of a million people needing emergency water supplies, 6-thousand are still without.

Sanitation remains a huge concern with nearly 50-thousand people still without access to latrines.

OCHA says the situation will become more challenging now foreign military forces which have been helping Fiji have departed.