El Nino tightens grip on Pacific

Transcript

The governor of Chimbu Province in Papua New Guinea says the effects of El Niño there are so severe schools have closed, public servants aren't working and the hospital has shut its doors.

Noah Kool says 300,000 people in the province have been affected by frosts and drought, which has caused water supplies to dry up and food gardens to be destroyed.

Almost the entire Pacific region is preparing for what climate forecasters say could be one of the worst El Niño events since the late 1990s, expected to peak from October to January.

Mary Baines reports.

Noah Kool says the lack of water in Chimbu's main town, Kundiawa, is an emergency, and is concerned the situation is only going to get worse.

"People are going to die. People are really going to die. The majority of people, they live on the land. And if the land dries up, they will really be suffering. So we've got a disaster here. The water supply has dried up, so the public servants are not working. Our hospital, five-star hospital, is closing its doors now because for all its operations, it needs water. The schools are closing down. Kids have been sent home. We really have a serious problem here."

About two weeks ago, the Peter O'Neill government announced it was shipping aid in response to pleas from across the Highlands and warnings the El Niño system could mean drought into 2016.

But Mr Kool says the government has not sent enough aid for his province, and the local government has no funding to roll out relief from beyond Kundiawa.

"I don't know how they are going to do it, but we need to be given more aid. We need to be given more aid. Currently they gave us only 5000 bags of 20 kg rice. What about the 299,500 households? I think we've got a big problem here. What about the water containers?"

Mr Kool says reports of deaths related to the drought have not been confirmed.

In Enga Province, the provincial administrator, Samson Amean, says the consignment of food aid sent by the national government has still not reached thousands of people.

Dr Amean says there have been logistical and funding issues.

"We have to move the rations from Mount Hagen which is about two hours, three hours drive from my province. And have those rations kept in our warehouse for safe keeping, and then dispatched to the affected districts, that'll be another two, three hours. Trucking is something we desperately - we need the funds to hire trucks to bring the stock needed for the victims."

In the autonomous Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville, the disaster coordinator, Franklin Lacey, says he hopes a visit by government officials this week will result in aid for the 200,000 people adversely affected.

He says recent rainfall provided temporary relief, but it will not sustain the region over the next few months.

"The national government assessment team, they want to verify the assessment here and then provide us funding. They will get the report over to the government to try and assist us with the situation here. The government here does not have any funds to assist."

In Vanuatu, six months after Cyclone Pam devastated the country, there are fears the drought could create major food shortages.

The aid organisation CARE Australia says in the country's south, staple food crops have failed to fully recover after the cyclone due to limited water supplies, sea water damage and dry conditions.

Its Vanuatu program manager Charlie Damon says people are starting to feel concerned about not having enough food.

"We were distributing seeds so that people could start to grow their own crops, however for reasons including unpredictable weather, these crops have failed. And so what we are preparing ourselves for is another situation where food security is a problem, where households do not have enough food. And we've already heard stories of children not being able to go to school because they haven't got enough food."

Ms Damon says the cyclone season, which begins in October, could further exacerbate the situation.

In Tonga, there has been extremely dry weather for nearly a year, with shipments of water necessary for Ha'apai and Vava'u islands.

The National Emergency Office director, Leveni 'Aho, says while there has been some rain recently, communities must prepare for the worst over the coming months.

"The thing with the El Niño is not only the water shortage, it also normally comes with a very cold evening and it also means that we might have some more cyclone activity on the coming season. So it [doesn't] look very bright out there on the horizon at this point. But it's something we keep monitoring and alerting our people to."

In Fiji, the director for the National Disaster Management Office, Akapusi Tuifagalele, says it has already provided almostUS$250,00 worth of assistance to those who need it.

"We have provided infrastructure for example, water tanks, water pipes and hoses. In other areas we provided a government barge to actually cart water across to the maritime communities. At the moment Fiji is doing fine, but we understand from what our met people have mentioned is that it will intensify further."

The El Niño pattern is predicted to last well into next year.