Watom island hustles

As relief supplies slowly trickles down to the affected areas in East New Britain, some affected areas fear the supplies may not last.

Watom Island LLG of Rabaul District is one of the affected areas in the province where people have lost most of their food gardens and water sources.

And there are concerns amongst the people on the island on how long will the rations last before their food gardens starts to yield again.

This is what’s left from last week’s distressing weather at Taranata ward, one of the six affected wards of Watom LLG in Rabaul District.

The Taranata ward is situated at the back part of the island, overlooking the vast Bismarck Sea, leaving the village vulnerable to strong winds and king tides.

Here, the island’s main staple foods struggle to rejuvenate after being hit by strong winds.

Waira Karlo- the ward’s law and order committee tells me, it might take a while for the yellow leaves to turn green due to high presence of salt, in the sandy soil.

And their clean drinking water source from catchments like this may also run out soon, he says.

"The strong wind has damaged most of our food gardesn and clean drinking source of water," he said.

The LLG committee had encouraged the people to go back to the basics – by replanting their own food as they wait for the relief supplies to reach them.

The people are concerned, how long they will have to wait before their staple food start to yield again and the relief supply will not last long if it arrived.

At the LLG Chambers, the ward members have gathered to plan on how they will be distributing the relief supplies this week to the 3, 000 people living in six different wards on the island.

The Watom LLG president Mathew Pentecost Lome says they know there will be disgruntled villagers, but they hope there won’t be any hint of trouble.

"The supply will not be enough for all the affected areas but we will try to help the people who are most affected and are in a most critical living conditions," Lome said.

It’s a district that continues to rise from the volcanoic ashes only to be buried again by subsequent eruptions over the last 20 years.

Last month, the district’s Administration building was gutted by fire and the flash floods and strong winds on the Easter weekend have yet again tested the preparedness of the district to respond to any disaster.

The LLG president said when disaster strikes, their seemingly small Island, becomes relatively big and difficult to handle.