Climate Grief - Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands' next challenge to repatriate flood victims: NZ

The main hospital has sent staff to deal with diarrhoea ,dengue flu and malaria outbreaks with damp conditions at the care centres hindering relief efforts.

The evacuation centres are still home to about 9 to 10 thousand people where supplies for the families in the centres limited and bridge access to Honiara is slow.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts


Speaker: Acting New Zealand High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, Sarah Wong

WONG: I mean in terms of I guess the state of Solomon Islands and where things are I think it's useful to note that this has been an enormous event for Solomon Islands, and in particular, Honiara and Guadalcanal Province. It is a natural disaster that I can't thing of anyone, any Solomon Islander that I've spoken to who have described some natural disaster that's been worse than this and so it has taken people by surprise and people the recovery period is going to be quite awhile, this is many months of recovery for Solomon Islands. And I think that the international community need to be on standby to help, but Solomon Islands obviously need that space to work through some of these very complex issues around repatriating families, working out where people can rebuild, and also just the enormous task of rebuilding the infrastructure and basic services so that Honiara City and Guadalcanal Province can return to normal.


COUTTS: New Zealand is working with UNICEF as are other nations to try and overcome the concern about what's happening in the Care Centres at the moment. They're crowded still,

people aren't able to go home, the schools are in use as kids haven't been able to go back to school and now, on top of that, they're trying to avert another crisis of illness in these Care centres. Can you just give us a status report?

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Climate Putting More Cities Underwater

Floods leave half of Solomon Islands' capital without access to water

Authorities say it could be weeks before water supplies to the capital of Solomon Islands are restored.

9 April 2014 (Radio Australia) – Authorities say it could be weeks before water supplies to the capital of Solomon Islands are restored.

Last week, unprecedented flooding in the Pacific island nation claimed the lives of 23 people and left 9,000 homeless.

It also wreaked havoc on Honiara's water mains, with around 50 per cent of the city now unable to access water, and pipes to one of the main water supply depots broken.

Solomon Water General Manager Richard Austin said parts of the water system have been completely destroyed.

"We have two levels of problem," he told the ABC.

"We're dealing with the amount of water available in Honiara, generally, but also … provid[ing] safe basic quantities of drinking water to the evacuation centres."

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced a $3 million aid package to help the flood recovery.

Australia will also boost the number of personnel in the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

There are now 16 Australian Defence Force personnel deployed in the country.

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