Vanuatu launches report on Cyclone Pam response

Transcript

Improving warning systems, logistics and co-ordination between the Vanuatu government and NGOs are some of the recommendations of a report on lessons from Cyclone Pam.

Released on Wednesday, the report is a compilation of shared views and experiences who took part in the relief effort after Pam in March 2015.

The category 5 cyclone, which is the worst to ever hit Vanuatu, affected 188,000 people and damaged 96 percent of the country's crops.

The Director General of Vanuatu's Ministry of Climate Change, Jesse Benjamin, spoke with Koroi Hawkins about the report.

JESSE BENJAMIN:  I think some of the core ones are on the contention of the resources, the different stakeholders and the activities.

KOROI HAWKINS: I was in Vanuatu and travelled a fair bit around the islands, just after Pam and I noticed the lack of communication was a big thing
once the towers went down a lot of people had no information I see there is a section on that?

JB: Yes, definitely I mean one thing is the communication breakdown there are so many things we can learn from.

KH: I noticed, in the Solomon Islands, where I come from there is quite a lot of HF radio distribution around the provincial centres but that wasn't evident in many places outside the centres,
is that in the recommendations?

JB: It is something we are trying to integrate. We are setting up a provincial centres in the provinces so that we can co-ordinate activities on the ground in the provinces as well. And some of them are good, that you know they can be past expiry date,
and one thing they do is that they have disposable cords you know so some of them they can reach the country in good time, the other thing is that some of the food stuff that was sent it didn't have labels on it which makes it difficult to actually distribute.

KH: Yes that's quite complex. One of the thing that at the time the government was adamant on was the co-ordination of all the relief through the government agencies is that still something you will be continuing or will you change that?

JB: This is something which is really important, like I said earlier one of the prime things we learnt out of this is the co-ordination role. There are so many NGO's so many individuals that try and come and help so it's really the crunch of it ensuring the right people need
to go to the right place, and making use of resources.

KH: Yes, and how are things now, it has also been a year since the cyclone are there still issues are there still problems.

JB: Yeah I mean Vanuatu is constantly faced with these natural disasters, we have had the worst El Nino since 1952 so people are still while they're trying to recover from cyclone Pam we have this El Nino killing all the plants we are trying to grow there are a lot of small islands, and communities struggling out there, lacking water.

KH: So it's been a very long drought and that's across the Pacific but this was made worse coming off the cyclone

JB: Exactly.

KH: So is there anything in the report about long term support or spreading out the support?

JB: We are actually working with the Prime Minister's office to actually start rebuilding the construction phase, building back classrooms and things that were destroyed in Cyclone Pam.

KH: So that still hasn't started yet?

JB: Some of it has started some of it hasn't really but things are progressing now.

KH: Now with this report what is it that the Vanuatu government is planning to do are you going to implement all of the recommendations or review them or?

JB: Yeah we will try and do what we can, and it's something we can learn from and try to incorporate into our planning so that in the future we can be prepared..

KH: There is quite a lot in there, are you going to seek more funding to try and implement some of these recommendations?

JB: Yeah we will look into it, we can't do much without support from our development partners.