LIFE has been a challenge for young mother of four, Helena Tanona, since flash flooding swept through her community in Guadalcanal Plains on 3 April 2014.
Following days of heavy rain, river banks were strained and eventually broke, inundating Dadave community.
The rushing water took almost all of her family’s possessions away, destroyed their food garden and contaminated their water source.
Helena recalls how her family lost most of their household items as the rapid rising water forced her family to quickly flee.
“My young nephew was crying out that all of the kitchen utensils were being washed away but life isn’t worth risking to save a few possessions,” she said.
“One of the few things we have left is a mattress because I rolled it up and stuffed it in the ceiling.”
The raging water brought heavy, thick mud and debris which covered the bore hole in Dadave community leaving over 300 people without access to clean water.
Dadave community relies on the bore hole for cooking, washing and drinking.
Since the flood, Helena has been collecting water from the nearby river which she fears is unsafe for consumption.
“The water came up so high and brought so much mud that our bore hole became too dirty to use,” says Helena.
“We had no choice but to get water from the river. But we don’t know if the river is clean or not because it washes down from the mine.”
World Vision is working together with the communities to repair and clean the community’s bore hole and reinstall the community water tank.
Access to clean water remains a priority for World Vision and its partners of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) cluster.
World Vision is currently leading rehabilitation work to clean hundreds of water wells and bore holes in Honiara and Guadalcanal Plains, initially removing dirt and silt from wells and bore holes and then treating them to make the water safe for consumption.
New bore holes are also being drilled in communities where existing bore holes are too severely damaged to be repaired.
World Vision has installed two NOMAD water purification systems in Guadalcanal Plains and Honiara to provide access to clean water in communities where water wells have been destroyed and has two more to be installed shortly.
To date over 264,000 litres of clean water has been distributed to communities.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the relief and development agency of the Government of Australia, is supporting World Vision’s flood response efforts including rehabilitation work to water wells, water purification and distribution and other sanitation and hygiene activities.
Relief assistance is being co-ordinated by the Honiara City Council and Guadalcanal Provincial Government and National Disaster Management Office.
