East Sepik emergency supplies to be distributed starting Monday

Relief supplies stacked for distribution (Supplied: Gawi Singut)

The first lot of LLG’s in East Sepik province started organizing their relief supplies on Thursday to the affected villages, provincial member Allan Bird says.

Mr Bird said ward members will forefront the emergency assistance to all impacted communities with the support of public servants.

He said the Australian government has also provided 250 disaster kits which will be delivered to the disaster-affected villages starting on Monday.

The first lot of LLG's began mobilizing assistance last Thursday from their allocated funding.

The Australian Government delivered 250 disaster assistance kits on Friday and Mr Bird says the help from the people of Australia was unexpected but welcomed.

The kits will be delivered directly to the affected people this week along with the 100 kits put together in Wewak by the ESPA.

“We thank the national government for supplying helicopters to assist with the disaster.”

The provincial member said that teams have been setup to deliver the relief supplies starting from Monday onwards.

He said since declaring a state of emergency in the province, each LLG was allocated with adequate funding of K200,000 to aid those affected.

“That's K5.6m we authorized last week,” the provincial member said of the total funding in cash given to LLG’s

“We have K5m in PSIP that our JBP&BPC will authorize over the coming days.”

Mr Bird added that the current situation was a test of how responsive the province is and he believes his people will overcome this challenge.

“I believe we should always be prepared for the worst,” he said.

“The twin natural disasters we are facing now will test our resilience and our ability to respond.

“I urge our local leaders at LLG level, all public servants and our people to do all we can to help our people. We just have to be smart, prudent and diligent.”

Relief Supplies on top of trucks ready for distribution on Monday (Picture: Supplied)

Meanwhile, Mr Bird said he had met with other relevant foreign donors, seeking assistance on other necessities such as canvas, drinking containers, water purifiers, cooking utensils and emergency building kits.