No relief as people starve to death

PORT MORESBY – Poor logistical planning has been blamed for relief supplies not reaching starving people in drought-affected parts of Papua New Guinea. An estimated 800,000 people are in need of food in mainly remote areas. The PNG government says it has started providing relief aid but frontline workers say much of it is stuck in provincial warehouses, with no budget to distribute the supplies. “The dry spell is still on and, some people are starving because of shortage of food, it started last year and is still worse today,” said villager Solokai Fataiyai, speaking to Radio New Zealand’s Dateline Pacific from Mougulu Station deep in the jungle of Papua New Guineas Western Province. He says it has now been more than six months since the drought began and his people are losing hope of ever getting help from the government. “They are promising to assist us but at the moment we have not received any assistance, almost from last year middle of the year. At the moment we have got 15 people already have passed away because of hunger.” According to a specialist in Papua New Guinea agriculture and food, Fataiya’s situation is shared by hundreds of thousands not because there is no aid but because local authorities lack the resources to get aid to those in need. Mike Bourke who has just returned to Australia says this stems from a combination of drought-related factors including reduced nutrition and an increased disease burden with people having to work twice as hard to find food. “Adults are dying who don’t normally die, people in their 20s and 30s – and there is clearly an increase in death rate amongst very small children. “We don’t have really hard data, we don’t have lots of good demographic data but the evidence coming in is credible. “It may not be tens of thousands of people over all but for the groups and communities involved it is a huge tragedy.” Dr Bourke has been compiling reports and analysis to try and assist authorities to be more strategic in the distribution of the aid. Workers on the frontline of the drought crisis are pleading with the national government to allow international donor partners and humanitarian organisations to take part in ongoing efforts to provide relief to drought affected communities. The drought relief director for the Church Partnership Programme, Mathew Kanua, says international partners could help. “They do this thing all over the world, they can come and help and plan the logistics and transport together with the government and budget these things and invite the participation of the private sector and we can move this along very quickly. But the government has not clearly stated what role these people play and if any.” - RNZI