PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea faces a long road to recovery after the February 26 earthquake that hit the nation’s rugged highlands more than 10 days ago, with the death toll now believed to have climbed to more than 100.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill flew over the worst-hit this week saying: “There will be no quick fix. The damage from this disaster will take months and years to be repaired.”

Australia and New Zealand sent more helicopters and planes to help deliver food, water and medicine to the remote region, where the government and aid agencies have been scrambling to reach villages stranded by landslides and collapsed roads.

“Tragically, the Highlands earthquake has already claimed the lives of an estimated more than 100 Papua New Guineans, with many more still missing and thousands of people injured,” O’Neill said in Tari, the capital of Hela province.

The quake forced oil giant ExxonMobil Corp to shut all its gas facilities in the country, which it expects will be down for about eight weeks while it carries out inspections and repairs.

“It has essentially come out unscathed,” ExxonMobil senior vice-president Neil Chapman said on Wednesday.

He said the main challenge to restoring operations was moving people back into the quake-hit area and fixing their living quarters.

“It’s tough to get people in and out in the highlands right now,” Chapman said.

“Accommodation is a challenge. Infrastructure is a challenge.”

O’Neill shrugged off criticism of the speed of the Government’s response, saying PNG agencies like the Defence Force were helping people.

“Over the last few days we’ve been working closely with the Australian government, with Exxon, with Oil Search, and Ok Tedi in particular, in making sure that immediate assistance that has been required by the communities in those affected areas.”

“They are immediately bringing sick and those people who have been injured to hospitals on a regular basis. So they’re going to very, very remote areas,” he said.

The remoteness of the region and the extent of road and airstrip damage have been key reasons slowing the delivery of aid, but problems have also been caused by some residents of the quake area.

O’Neill said quake-damaged mobile towers had been vandalised, and armed groups had been blocking roads and demanding large sums of money to let vehicles through.

The quake destroyed the food gardens of hundreds of thousands of people, and landslides have dammed and polluted the rivers they use for drinking.

Rebuilding the region’s roads, bridges, schools and clinics is expected to take years. “This is a natural disaster. It is not created by someone where there is some compensation to be claimed,” he said. “This kind of lazy mentality needs to stop.”

- PNC sources