Aid groups in Solomon Islands are raising concerns a lack of food security is stopping many flood victims returning home from evacuation centres.

Devastating flash floods earlier this month killed 21 people and left thousands homeless.

Agricultural land and village food gardens were also wiped out by the flooding or have been buried in thick silt.

CEO of the New Zealand aid group Tear Fund, Ian McInnes, says that’s seen a 400 per cent increase in the price of food staples in Honiara.

“There’s some food in the markets, but not enough, so that elevates the price,” he said.

“And so just as families are hit hard, having lost many of their assets and been in these evacuation centres for nearly two weeks, they come out and find that food is priced out of reach.

“You look at the markets, and some stores have folks manning them and then there are just vacant benches where there would have been men or women selling their fruits and vegetables and they’re just not there.”

McInnes says with schools in Honiara soon to reopen, there is a risk that children and poorer families will suffer a nutrition deficit from being priced out of the staple food market.

“This is one of the issues that is keeping people in evacuation centres,” he said.

“The challenge with evacuation centres is they can attract people to them who are really on the fringes, who need the support that comes from those facilities,” he said.

“But the aid programme really needs to migrate home with people to help get gardens up and running again, because people are hanging on to the evacuation centres because of the free supply of food, water and basic household items.”

There will be no quick fix for the devastation faced by the Solomon Islands, according to Red Cross on the ground.

Red Cross’s Janna Hamilton says, with many homes and livelihoods destroyed, the recovery process will be a long one.

“Particularly people’s livelihoods that have been destroyed. They have no way of earning enough money to pay for food so the assistance is going to be ongoing here and people’s needs will remain for months to come.”

She says it could be up to 18 months before these families can be properly re-homed.

The Guadalcanal province, outside of the capital, was the most heavily affected area by the flooding.

Tear Fund’s McInnes says while much of the aid has focused on Honiara, rebuilding food security needs to start in Guadalcanal instead.

“These are villages that have large tracts of land and supply large quantities of fresh produce into Honiara,” he said.

“They’ve always said of the 50,000 people affected in Solomon Islands, 40,000 of those are outside the capital.

“Four in five people affected live outside the capital, and that’s where the aid needs to go.”