Member of Parliament for east central Guadalcanal Joseph Onika has sent a total of 2680 of 20kg bags of rice to his constituency on Sunday on board the chartered MV Koyu Maru.
Onika said his people are amongst others who have been badly affected by the recent flash floods therefore has to respond as his people are in dire need for urgent relief.
“I want to thank PM Lilo and the NCRA government on behalf of my people for ensuring the release of the $300,000 ROC fund just in time when it was needed the most. This is constituency money which Iam obliged to give it to my people,”Onika said.
The supplies departed Honiara early Sunday morning on a chartered boat MV Koyu Maru which was expected to arrive later that day.
Onika said he had to use an additional $130,890 of constituency money on top of the $300,000 the government gave as the first trench of RCDF for 2014 to meet the costs for both the supplies and boat charter.
“I share my heart with my people and others who have been affected by the flooding. I call on my good people of east central Guadalcanal to accept this relief supplies and wait patiently for any other assistance that will come from the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) or NGOs later,” Onika added.
He said although Guadalcanal province could not provide any detailed assessment report of the magnitude of destruction caused and number of people affected in his constituency, he wanted to thank his interim disaster committee and police officers who were able to submit an assessment report to assist with the distribution of the relief supplies.
He urged his people to accept and managed the supplies on its arrival as distribution will be done upon arrival of the chartered boat late Sunday morning.
BY Daniel Namosuaia
