Flood inundated villages along Sepik River

 Governor  Allan  Bird issues statement about the provinces responses to Sepik River flood 

On Thursday, we did a tour of parts of the river basin to gauge the extent of the flooding affecting our people.

Continuous rain up in the highlands and along the Sepik basin has resulted in higher than normal flooding. Our river people build homes on high posts to account for annual flooding, unfortunately this current flooding is quite rare. If my memory is correct, we had similar floods in 1982 and 1996.

The district and LLG managers are making assessments of the worst hit areas. Meanwhile the LLG presidents, public servants, MP Wewak and I had a meeting to urgently agree on assistance to be delivered where most needed.

So far we have had two casualties as the result of a land slip in Balam, Dagua LLG, Wewak.

All LLGs are authorised to use K200,000 each to provide relief in those LLGs affected by flooding. DDAs and the ESPG will step in where needed. All assistance will be coordinated on the ground by the respective Ward Members.

Our most affected LLGs are Tunap Hunstein, Ambunti, Gawi, Karawari, Yuat, Keram, Angoram and Marienberg. All food gardens, water sources and many homes are now under water in the worst hit areas.

The immediate need is for canvas, clean drinking water and food (carbohydrates). The people still have plenty of fish and wild protein.

For clean water, we will be talking to our partners to quickly deploy filter buckets for every affected family or water containers that they can refill. We have a current program that distributes filter buckets from the USA. We intend to expand that programme rapidly.

For food, LLGs not affected by flood are urged to supply fresh sago, taro or other crops as necessary through a coordination mechanism set up by the provincial administration.

The PHA is ready to respond to the outbreak of water borne diseases as they arise and medicines and teams are on standby. Emergency medical response is also on standby to respond to any critical emergency requests.

We thank our partners, Samaritan Aviation, our business community, our Churches, our Chamber of Commerce and our people for their support and resilience.

We expect help to be delivered within the 10 days and we expect this crisis to continue for at least 6 weeks.

We urge the business community not to entertain any individual requests for help. If any donations are required from the business community, the Provincial Administrator, Mr Samson Torovi will be writing officially.

We hope this clarifies the situation and should anyone have any issues, please consult our Provincial Disaster Office managed by Mr Warakai.

This message has been disseminated by NBC Wewak as well.