The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) and its stakeholders and partners have completed the food and none-food items relief supplies distribution on the affected Islands of Tikopia, Anuta, Duff and Reef Outer Islands in Temotu Province on Tuesday.
The team has then arrived back in Honiara on Saturday 11th March 2015.
In light of the complaints raised by the Paramount Chief of Duff Island Mr. Noel Hatu, the NDMO as the responsible agency wish to make it clear that the disaster response and relief activities undertaken by the various Government Agencies and NGOs is a collective multi-agency response by the Solomon Islands Government and its Disaster Management Stakeholders with relevant roles and responsibilities under the Solomon Islands Disaster Risk Management Plan 2010.
In a statement its said, based on the disaster impact assessments conducted on Duff, the agriculture assessment indicated 75% damages to food gardens, meaning the impact is not severe.
“As for shelter assessment, the report stated that there are only 24 households on the Island and of the total assessed, 9 houses were destroyed of which most are kitchens whilst many of the houses were tilted or sustain damages to roofs but can be easily repaired.
“Regarding health, there is only one case of diahorrea on the Island. As for the Water and hygiene, the water system on the Islands when assessed is unaffected and safe for human consumption.
“As such, based on the assessment data, a total of 6.94 tons of rice (347 x 20kg) was distributed along with 73 tarpaulins, 38 hygiene kits, 76 collapsible water containers and 76 mosquito nets.
“Apart of the relief supplies, the health/medical component of the team did also provide clinical services.”
The NDMO wishes to make it clear that any support is based on assessment; it is the assessment that determines the level of support that the affected families received. Therefore, it’s not all the supplies on-board the vessel is destined for Duff Island, all the relief items that were returned to Lata are None-Food Items (NFIs’) such as Tarpaulins, water containers, etc; and there are two reasons for the action;
1. no NFIs distribution was done on Reef Islands because of unverified assessment data. However, the data are now being verified and plans are underway for the NFI distribution on Reef Islands possibly in the next day or two.
2. The stocks was part of the SI Red Cross and World Vision replenishing stocks (replacement stocks) to replace those that were being distributed and to beef-up their disaster pre-positioned stock supplies to respond effectively to future disasters on Temotu Province.
The NDMO also noted that from the team de-briefing session held at Lata, the NDMO led multi-sectoral team noted that there was disorganised within the population on Duff Island as some people did not want to cooperate and there is in-fighting over the relief supplies by the communities, event to a stage where a police officer who is part of the team was assaulted by a villager whilst the team try to intervene and settle the in-fighting.
“As a result, the team handed the food supplies to the Anglican Priest on the Island and the community committee to distribute the food supplies. These types of actions did not portray the unity within our communities and poses risks for humanitarian workers, and village leaders, community leaders, chiefs and paramount chiefs needs to organize their community to support such undertakings.
“The NDMO encourages affected communities to organize themselves and cooperate with Assessments and Relief teams as it is based on the teams’ reports before decisions were made.”
The NDMO thanked all the affected communities who cooperated with the team and wish them a speedy recovery.
