Relief to tsunami-affected areas: water, sanitation and the politicisation of aid

The death toll in the Solomon Islands continues to rise as reports flow back in from more islated areas ('Aid flows grow in Solomon Islands, tsunami tolls set to rise').

I just spoke to a friend, J, who lives in Honiara but is from Choiseul and has a lot of family in the Western Province (esp. Gizo). He said that he's heard from his family in Gizo, who have lost their homes and all their property and are now living 'up in the hills'. Neither J nor his family in Gizo have heard from their wantoks in Choiseul - communication with people in Choiseul is difficult at the best of times (most Solomon Islanders depend on radio rather than telephone), but is virtually impossible at present due to reduced movement between the islands.

J said that while there were originally hold ups with the distribution of aid because some of the airports had been damaged by the earthquake, aid was now getting through. He also reported water shortages for people who lived in Gizo - unlike people in many of the villages, people in Gizo rely on rainwater and their tanks cracked during the earthquake (see also here and here).

People in Gizo do, however, have access to food, because most people's gardens are up in the hills, and weren't affected by the tsunami (see also Solomon Star News, 'People Are Now Starving' and The Age, 'Water shortage hits Solomons').

Aid workers have warned that disease could take a greater number of lives than the tsunami event itself ('Disease could kill more than tsunami').

Michael McKenna for The Australian reports from the Western Province that relief effrot is now surrounded by "political infighting and allegations of poor co-ordination and pilfering" (here):

Village elders accuse government authorities of favouring their own racial groups. Australian police, in the country with the Regional Mission to the Solomon Islands,
say their counterparts are lazy, (nice!!) and regional politicians argue that Honiara is not doing enough.

The Sydney Morning Herald also carries reports of the politicisation of aid ('Rescue efforts all at sea'). As was the case during the Boxing Day Tsunami, it appears that in some areas children (perhaps adults, too?) got excited about the unusual behaviour of the sea and ran down to the waters edge, only to lose their lives as the waves came racing back in.

Both articles indicate that the wantok system is preventing some people from participating in the relief effort and/or receiving aid. Interestingly, none of this is reported in the Solomon Star, which frequently features rather robust articles and opinion pieces.

Quite apart from the obstacles posed by regional and local politics, the geography of the Solomon Islands is inevitably posing logistical problems:

The logistics in the disaster zone are highly problematic. Western Province has a population of 80,000 and more than 600 islands out of the 900-plus islands in the entire Solomon Islands archipelago ('Rescue efforts all at sea').

The SMH also features a note about the Gilbertese, who form a substantial minority in the Solomon Islands. The Gilbertese originate from Kirbati, and being Micronesian (rather than Melansian, like Solomon Islanders), are easily identifiable. They experience a degree of social marginalisation that is expressed partly through their physical marginalisation - the Gilbertese live predominantly in fishing settlements along the coast, and were highly exposed to the tsunami. For example, while the tsunami barely affected Honiara, Gilbertese villages were affected although no lives were lost (the Gilbertese saw the water going out too far, and ran for higher ground). As the article in the SMH indicates, however, the Gilbertese around the epicentre of the quake were not so lucky.

The limited infrastructure in Solomon Islands is perhaps best captured by this piece, which notes that Save the Children has donated 20 chairs, a desktop computer and a printer to the National Disaster Council. I was last in Honiara in 2003 - and regularly saw workers not only from NGOs, but from the UN, using computers in one of the two internet cafes in Honiara.

AlertNet now has a page dedicated to the quake and tsunami (South Pacific quake) as does ReliefWeb (Solomon Islands Earthquake and Tsunami).

Solomon Islands quake and tsunami: day 4

Solomon Islands

A basic geography lesson!

The two provinces affected by the earthquake and tsunami are the Western Province, and Choiseul. Western Province includes the New Georgia Islands, the Shortland Islands, and Treasury Islands.

See here for maps:
Choiseul
Western Province

Choiseul is very isolated and, I've heard, incredibly beautiful. Western Province is famous for its lagoons, which include the renowed Marovo Lagoon. It is a mecca for divers and the one area of the Solomons where tourism is thriving.

A political stand-off, or undertaking proper assessments?

• The National Disaster Management Council endorsed the PM's call for immediate assesment of the affected areas in order to determine the level of assistance needed. The Chair to the Council said the government will await the report before deciding whether to declare a state of emergency over the affected areas. AusAID, NZAid and other international agencies are waiting for official requests for help, which may be made after the assessment (here).
• A state of emergency has now been declared for Western Province, Choiseul Province, and North Ysabel.


• The PM has directed that all assistance from donors and NGO’s towards the disaster relief operations must be channeled through the National Disaster Council (NDC) for proper coordination (here).


• Some see these moves as political stalling on the part of the PM, and in The Age today (5 April), an editorial, Disaster requires unity, not dissent, notes that it is disappointing that RAMSI's efforts to respond to the disaster are being frustrated by politics because the SI Government has not invited RAMSI to fully join the relief effort. The Age asks that the SI PM "look beyond wounded national pride and accept all assistance he is offered." This is a fair request - but I wonder whether this is about politics or good emergency management. I'm sure it's about both, and the extent to which each play a role is hard to assess when I'm here in Canberra. However several people have noted that the PM is from Choiseul, and he is surely aware that the failure to provide relief will have political repercussions for him. Furthermore, if these delays are based on a genuine need to fully assess the area, this will hopefully ensure that the provision of relief is more appropriate and effective. Elsewhere in The Age, Walter Nalangu reports from Munda that Aid logjam piles misery on victims.
• John Howard contacted Mannasseh Sogavare directly yesterday, pleding more assistance.

Other notes:

• Due to the damage to shops in Gizo, people in Gizo are desperately waiting the delivery of food, shelter and water. Honiara's Chinatown may be doing well out of this disaster, as people in Honiara are buying goods and endeavouring to deliver them to the affected areas themselves. It's unclear whether this is contributing to the bottleneck (local people may be using boats rather than flying)


• The telephone service in Gizo is up and running again, but struggling to cope with the greatly increased volume of calls (in the aftermath of the Easter riots last year, I had trouble calling Honiara, as the numbers I called would connect to the wrong number!) Solomon Telekom is requesting that people avoid making unnecessary calls to the area (another way in which well meaning people can actually hamper aid efforts!)
• A camp has now been set up in Gizo for those who lost their homes in the tsunami. The tents provided by RAMSI and other organisations are still not enough to accommodate those that have lost their homes. A medical camp has also been set up to treat the wounded - many patients have cuts and wounds.
• The lack of shelter is likely to raise the risk of malaria due to lack of shelter, and cuts and wounds can become infected quickly in the tropical climate.


• It's still difficult finding out anything about other parts of Western Province, and even harder to find out much about what's happening in Choiseul. The NDMC has visited the Shortland Islands and reports that there is a desperate need for basic necessities like food, shelter and water. Kitchen buildings and their contents have been washed away, as have water tanks, church buildings, and health centres (where they exist!).
• The island of Simbo appears to have suffered the most. According to Archbishop Smith, "people have been forced to evacuate Taro Island to Moli. The island of Simbo with its active volcano has suffered a lot. The people there were caught between their constantly active volcano and then the waves and are afraid to move to higher ground. There seems to have been a lot of deaths in the Simbo area."

More aid offered

• The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat has made FJD$20,000 available through the Regional Natural Disaster Relief Fund (here). The PIF appears to have thrown its weight behind RAMSI, with the Secretary General of the Forum Secretariat noting that "The regional resources of RAMSI (the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands) have already been deployed to assist Solomon Islands respond to the disaster. That assistance will clearly be critical in the days ahead.”


• The Republic of China has donated $1.5 million to the SI Government for those affected by the disaster. Taiwan is providing a medical team to the affected area, and also announced the provision of solar power experts to Honiara for upgrading power infrastructure (here).
• Turkey has also announced assistance (here).
• Meanwhile, the Solomons is deepening its ties with Cuba, receiving the Ambassador in Honiara yesterday (here).

Remembering resilience, coping, and the opportunities offered by disasters

• I had a long chat with a friend from the Solomons (from the south, not from the tsunami-affected areas) yesterday, in which he reminded me of the resilience of Solomon Islanders, and the fact that disasters such as this can offer opportunities for both physical and social rebuilding. I was reminded of this again when I read of the Chinese store-owners in Gizo feeding tsunami victims.

Papua New Guinea

• There has been little news about the parts of PNG that suffered the same earthquake and tsunami. PNG's The National (4 April) reports that reports were received of a family of five going missing after a three-metre wave struck their island in Milne Bay province after the earthquake. However provincial authorities have reviewed the report and now say that those who were missing were believed to be on a boat travelling to the outer islands when high waves struck them.


• The PNG Post Courier (4 April) reports that displaced villagers along the coast of South Bougainville are still waiting for relief from authorities in Buka, and that there is still no indication as to whether a Red Cross team would be dispatched to the worst hit area in Bougainville. Villagers report that the earthquake "cut out mountain tops" which destroyed villages (I assume this means a landslide?) Locals also reported that seven-metre high waves pounded the shore, washing away the wharf, houses and gardens in coastal villages.


• The National also carries an editorial (4 April) making the point that like any other major natural hazard, tsunamis must be guarded against to the limits of the available technology. It argues that the present arrangements have "been proven unsatisfactory over and over again, with slow and inadequate responses, massive corruption, outright theft of donated goods and a host of other problems" and calls on provincial governments to explain their lack of action and provide a plan for the future.

The relevance of land: from the Solomons to the Sudan

I think land tenure, and questions about access to land, are one of the most neglected aspects of aid and development initiatives and conflict resolution initiatives. Sure, big institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank realise they're important, but how many NGOs deal with these issues? In Australia at least, one of the primary criticisms of AusAID that I hear from activists and those working for NGOs is that the money is directed at "too high a level" - ie it's directed at reform of legal and administrative mechanisms, rather than at what some would call "the grassroots". However land tenure is one of the very areas in which we see exactly why it might be not only flawed, but dangerous, to assume that such distinctions can be drawn.

I was reminded of this last year when I attended a workshop with people from around the world who'd gathered to talk about housing, land and property issues in post-conflict societies. I don't know much about the conflict in the Sudan, but I now realise that land tenure underlies this conflict as it does so many others. Check out this article for more: Sudan: The Question of Land.

Thousands at risk of hunger and disease

(Photo from The Age)

The Solomon Islands is facing a major humanitarian crisis after the earthquake and tsunami, with tens of thousands of people at risk of hunger and infection due to isolation from relief efforts.

The official death toll has risen to 24. 13 villages are reported to have been destroyed. Some 50-60,000 people have been left homeless - that's more than 10% of the population!

Thousands of people continue to stay up in the hills overlooking Gizo, too scared to return to the coast but also with extremely limited access to food, water and shelter (drinking water has been destroyed by landslides and sea water). It is likely that the numbers of dead, injured and homeless will continue to rise, not only as a result of the initial hazard event, but because the Solomon Islands Government has warned that it could take 2 days to deliver aid to the area.

RAMSI officials have expressed frustration that their capacity to respond has been limited by the lack of an invitation to join relief efforts by the Solomon Islands Government. It is likely that recent tensions between RAMSI and the Solomon Islands Government plays a role in this, however the National Disaster Management Office has said that the Government needs to assess the area before it can determine what role RAMSI can play in relief efforts...sounds fair to me, although I'm not there on the ground!!

It should be noted that Australian newspapers and television news reports have neglected to mention that while the Solomon Islands has suffered an extroardinarily serious disaster, Solomon Islanders are also incredibly resilient. This was emphasised by Danny Kennedy - owner of the dive shop in Gizo - on Triple J yesterday, who noted that Solomon Islanders are incredibly tough and are already mobilising to respond to the need in their own communities. The coping strategies of local people must be recognised for relief efforts to be effective.

Solomon Islands tsunami: on the links between disasters and development

Aid workers have warned of a humanitarian crisis in Solomon Islands following yesterday's earthquake and tsunami (Reuters). As is the case with many disasters, this one is a product of the interaction of a natural hazard with existing sources of vulnerability, including:

• existing poor infrastructure


• damage to already limited water supplies


• a tropical climate in which infection can set in very quickly


• limited local supplies of antibiotics and anti-malarials


• damage to housing in an area in which malaria is prevalent


• inundation of gardens in a country where most people depend on subsistence agriculture (even in urban areas)


• damage to already limited stores of dry food


• the loss of boats in poor communities which are heavily reliant on fishing

For a list of Australian agencies working in Solomon Islands, click here.

Solomon Islands earthquake and tsunami: the day after

MAP: Solomon Islands tsunami damage (from AlertNet)

Solomon Islands

At least seven people died in Gizo (the provincial capital of the Western Province), many trapped in their homes when waves swept through the town. Other bodies could be seen but not reached because of huge waves crashing on to the shore (AlertNet). Australian newspapers have reported that at least 15 people died and hundreds are missing in Western Province (the Age)

The wave is reported to have been up to 10 metres high in some villages.

The Prime Minister has noted that the toll could have been higher if it had happened a few hours earlier, when people would have been sleeping.

Waves reach PNG

Waves of between one and three metres hit parts of the coastal area of PNG. Waves of 2-3 metres hit Rossel Island and Milne Bay. Buka, Rabaul and Kandrian were hit by waves as high as 1 metre (PNG NBC)

International assistance for Solomon Islands

Australia has made an initial offer of up to $2 million in emergency and reconstruction assistance to the Solomon Islands government (AusAid media release).

Solomon Islands earthquake and tsunami: counting the cost

From various sources (e-groups, online reports, contacts, contacts with contacts etc) I've heard that things in the Solomons are pretty bad...this report from the Age sums up what I've been hearing:

Residents of the Solomons Islands have told of terrifying scenes following the 8.1-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that washed ashore in its wake, wiping out homes and businesses on the shore.

There are unconfirmed reports of eight deaths, including six children, officials said, and a rise in the toll is expected.

The country's Prime Minister's office reports that at least six people have been killed and several are missing as "10-metre-high waves continue to crash [on] coastal villages".

Reports from police at Gizo - the capital of the western province and a popular destination for divers - said water now completely covered the lower areas of the town, while waves continued to pound the nearby towns of Noro and Munda.

About 50 homes in Gizo - just 45 kilometres from the centre of the quake - had reportedly been flattened and boats had been washed into the town.

There were reports that large waves had penetrated 500 metres inland, wiping out villages.

...

Some residents have been reported missing from Gizo, which has a population of about 20,000, and the hospital has been damaged.

...

Robert Iroga, editor of the Solomon Star newspaper, said it was too early to put a death toll on the disaster but that he had received reports from locals that bodies were "floating in the sea" in one area.

He said reports indicated one island close to the provincial airport had been totally covered by the wave.

...

Iroga, who is based in Honiara, said thousands of people could be affected by the tsunami.

"It's a time of year when a lot of people are staying in the villages, the schools are on a break," he told ABC radio.

...

Ms Kennedy said there was no early warning about the tsunami.

Everyone from the village had taken refuge on top of the hill, she said.

...

"It took all the houses down, the houses that are near the shore."

Ms Kennedy said the hospital is still being evacuated to higher ground.

"All the patients in the hospital, now a truck is giving them a lift up to the top of the hill.''

...

Danny Kennedy, the owner of the dive shop, estimated the height of the wave at 3 metres.

"I'm driving down the street — there are boats in the middle of the road, buildings have completely collapsed and fallen down," Mr Kennedy said.

"We're just trying to mobilise water and food, and shelter for people at the moment because . . . in the town alone there's going to be between 2000 and 3000 homeless. It's not a very good scene at the moment.''

...

"Some villages are completely wiped out," National Disaster Council chairman Fred Fakari told journalists in the capital Honiara this afternoon.

...

The disaster council decided not to declare a state of emergency following a meeting because of the lack of information, Fakari said.

...

Phone lines and electricity were down in the Western Province capital of Gizo, which was just 45km from the centre of the quake, hampering efforts to find out the extent of the damage.

There was still no idea about damage or casualties in more isolated areas in the west, he said. A Solomons government patrol boat was being sent from Honiara to assess the situation.

...

The Pacific nation's western province is its wealthiest, generating revenue from the thousands of tourists — many of them Australian and New Zealanders — who flock to the resorts and beaches.

"The resorts and hotels and other tourism-related facilities might be seriously affected," Mr Iroga said.

...

There were also fears of disease outbreaks following the devastation left by the tsunami, Mr Iroga said.

Many Gizo residents drew their water supply from wells which have been flooded by the massive wave.

"We need urgent assistance from abroad as we can't fund (the response to) this sort of tragedy and a disaster of this magnitude."

From the capital Honiara, Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation said residents on Simbo island had reported waves travelling up to 200 metres inland, damaging homes.

...

These communities are already vulnerable - many of the people who have lost boats will be poor and will have relied on those boats for their livelihoods. In poor communities, it is difficult to repair damage to essential infrastructure such as hospitals and roads. Furthermore, Solomon Islands has a narrow economic base, and this was the one remaining part of the country where tourism was still doing ok - this even could cause significant damage to an already vulnerable tourist industry.

Blogging as it happens: earthquake and tsunami in Solomon Islands...and elsewhere?

An earthquake measuring somewhere between 7.6 (if you read the Solomon Islands news) and 8.1 (based on the Australian media) on the Richter scale hit New Georgia this morning. The shake caused a tsunami to hit parts of the province, and it appears that damage in Gizo (the capital of the province) has been extensive with at least one death (see here). Reuters reports that many homes have been destroyed and three people have been found dead. This is saddening given that as far as I am aware (and based on my impressions from forums such as the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree), tourism in New Georgia was doing ok (while it's been virtually non-existent in other parts of the country since the Tensions).

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has warnings out for the entire eastern coast, however the threat appears to have dissipated (see here). Judging by some of the internet forums I'm on, the 2005 Tsunami appears to have (predictably) generated a fair degree of paranoia!

Another article from Reuters suggests that areas north of the Solomon Islands should not be significantly affected.

Edit: the death toll is climbing - latest reports from Reuters state that 2 villages are inundated and 4 people are missing in the isolated society islands.

For regular updates, check AlertNet and Reuters.