Flooding in PNG Highlands leaves 700 homeless
Updated
More than 700 villagers have been left homeless after their homes were damaged by flooding in the Papua New Guinea highlands this week.
presenter: Firmin Nanol
Speakers: PNG's National Disaster Centre Director, Martin Mose; PNG's Red Cross Western Highland provincial Chairperson, Regina Maxtone Graham
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NANOL: Flooding caused by heavy rains forced the Waghi River in PNG's Western Highlands province to burst its banks and submerge the Dei village.
PNG's National Disaster Centre says there are no reports of casualties and officials are assessing the damage.
Director Martin Mose says it has allocated 36,000 US dollars in disaster relief to purchase food, water and materials for temporary shelter for the 700 affected villagers.
MOSE: It's a management decision that they have to take very quickly given the situation on hand, and of course it's a commitment that we have already made and we've already instructed the province to go out and organise the assistance from the service provider or outlet in Hagan.
NANOL: Have you got any immediate reports from them and in contact with them as well?
MOSE: Currently at this point in time we haven't received any reports from yet, we are just raking through what we saw in the media, but we were able to catch up with them this morning eventually with the provincial administrator as well as the provincial coordinator. They are both here and we just met up with provincial coordinator just a while ago. He confirmed all the ... on ground and of course to brief him on the course of action that we have taken to address this.
NANOL: PNG's Red Cross Western Highland provincial branch has visited the affected villagers.
Chairperson Regina Maxtone Graham says the area is in a swampy spot and is prone to flooding.
She says the people will go hungry if the rain and flooding continues this week.
GRAHAM: With the continuous wet season in Papua New Guinea at the moment they're bound for that so I went out there myself this morning. Their food crops are buried under water and if it doesn't rain for the next two days they should be ok. They have a problem with drinking water and because it's a swampy area it's mostly riddled with mosquitoes. So on the health side they have typhoid, malaria and dysentery would be on the rise.
NANOL: Now Regina can you tell us what do they need at this point in time the people?
GRAHAM: At this immediate point in time they need clean water, so an assessment soon the ground and thinking of giving them water containers.
NANOL: Water containers, what about tents and or small tarpaulins?
GRAHAM: No where they are now I believe it's an open sort of classroom kind of thing that they're living in and where they are they've got a lot of wood where they can make houses, shelters, and I don't think they need tarpaulins. We're not thinking of that, our assessment I'm not thinking of that I think it's water containers. But other stakeholders might come in because I know the churches will chip in for food.
NANOL: Disaster officials say hundreds of houses including a church building are covered by the flooded river.
The 700 villagers escaped but lost everything including livestock and their food sources.
