Cyclone recovery underway in Kiribati and Tuvalu

Transcript

The Kiribati government says a boat carrying aid supplies for outer islands most affected by Cyclone Pam found there was much more damage than initially reported.

And while the focus remains on neighbouring Vanuatu, Tuvalu's government is trying to work out to deal with the hundreds of displaced people living in evacuation centres.

Mary Baines looks at how the cyclone recovery effort is going in both countries:

A Kiribati government spokesperson says at the weekend a boat carrying aid arrived at the southern islands of Arorae and Tamana, which bore the brunt of destructive winds and seas.

Rimon Rimon says reports from local councils did not paint a full picture of the damage.

He says hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and about half of the communities on both islands have been displaced.

"The damage is much more than what we read on paper. People are trying to relocate further inland and just trying to live with whatever shelter they have there. You can see the magnitude of the effects, the impact that they've experienced, it's quite substantial."

Mr Rimon says the main concern is ensuring clean water and sanitation on the islands.

He says cyclone recovery work has been made more difficult by spring tides, as many coastal infrastructures were affected and are being continually flooded.

But he says last week's spring tides of almost 2.9 metres were not as crippling as expected.

"We dreaded the worst, if there the strong winds and bad weather continued. But fortunately that didn't happen. So people were, the usual over-topping and flooding of houses which was  was experienced in the last spring tide."

In Tuvalu, a government spokesperson, Panapasi Nelesoni, says relief supplies are on their way to the northern islands.

He says relief has not yet reached Niutao and Nanumea.

"One vessel is now on Nanumaga delivering relief supplies and another boat was sent to also try to reach the other two islands that is Niutao and Nanumea. But for the southern islands we did send last week a vessel also to dispatch relief supplies to them."

However Mr Nelesoni says initial relief supplies expected to last two weeks would soon run out, and more aid like water, food and shelter was needed.

He says about 70 families are still living in school classrooms in Nui, where the whole island was flooded to waist level following storm surges.

Mr Nelesoni says the government is trying to work out how to move those families into community halls so that children can go back to school.

"Some of the halls were that badly damaged as well. So we are trying to repair those halls, to move the families that are currently accomodate in the classrooms to those community halls and at the same time try to work out a response to try to get them back to build their own houses."

Mr Nelesoni says after past cyclones, the government has provided some financial assistance to displaced people trying to rebuild their homes.

He was not able to say whether the government would do the same this time.