PANDUAGA – Children in remote areas of Papua New Guinea are dying as a result of food shortages caused by frost and worsening drought, villagers hve told the ABC.

The situation is being made worse in some remote locations which have not yet seen any sign of government food aid.

Severe dry weather has evaporated water sources in the Highlands provinces as the El Niño weather event continues to ravage the country.

Food gardens have been devastated by frosts and drought, forcing villagers to rely on bush foods and things they would normally feed to their animals.

Rocky Herpet, a ward councillor in Hela province, said two children in the remote village of Panduaga have died after eating unfamiliar food.

“Two kids have died because of the drought now. They were vomiting when they died,” he told the ABC.

Hela, which had previously been part of the Southern Highlands, only became an official province in May 2012.

Herpert said people in Panduaga are yet to receive any food relief because provincial governors have been arguing over which province is responsible for the village.

“We have no member, no governor to help us. We live in this corner, no one can help us,” he said.

James Komengi, the administrator for the Hela Community Good Action forum said despite the political wrangling, Panduaga is definitely part of Hela province.

In a gathering of elders in Panduaga this week, they pressed the councillor to seek immediate help in responding to the ongoing drought crisis.

“The situation there is really critical,” Komengi said.

“People there were saying that because they didn’t support the current representative in parliament they are unlikely to receive something.”

A state of emergency has already been declared in the Southern Highlands and Enga province, where church leaders claimed at least 10 people died from starvation last month.

The PNG government has pledged to provide emergency relief funds to affected areas, but was warned the situation on the ground could get worse.

According to PNG’s National Weather Service (NWS), the El Nino phenomenon will continue to strengthen and is expected to last until March 2016.

The effects are expected to surpass the 1997 event that adversely impacted around three million people, the Weather Service said.

Meanwhile, people in American Samoa have welcomed two days of rain after a three month spell of dry weather.

The National Weather Service issued an advisory on Friday saying American Samoa is in severe drought.

September had only 30 millimetres of rain, way below the norm of 200 millimetres for the month.

The average for October is about 250 millimetres but only about 50 millimetres has fallen so far.

The American Samoa Power Authority has reported continued decreasing levels in water wells.

The rainfall outlook for American Samoa for the next three months is below normal as El Niño conditions continue.

A trough lingering over the Samoa group which brought with it heavy rain is expected to move north by Thursday.

Climate experts say there is likely to be continuing water stress in several Pacific countries over the next three months.

New Zealand’s NIWA organisation, with the Pacific Islands Meteorological Services and other weather bodies in the region, say both Fiji and Tonga had below or well below normal rainfall in the past four months and that is likely to continue at below normal into November.

Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu – which have both experienced below normal rain conditions since July – are being warned that the current dry weather is likely to continue for the next three months.