NDMO EXPRESSED CONCERNS OF HIGH DISEASE RISK AT CAMPS
Director of the National Disaster Management Office Loti Yates. Photo: Courtesy of SPREP.
The National Disaster Management Office Director Loti Yates has expressed concerns about the high risk of diseases associated with overcrowding and lack of clean water and sanitation after last week’s flood.
Mr Yates says these diseases include malaria, dysentery and Dengue fever.
He says there are possibilities of the outbreak because of the level of exposure evacuees face in evacuation centres.
Mr Yates emphasized, the priority for the NDMO at the moment is still to attend to the needs of the people who have been seriously impacted by the terrible weather events and provide immediate, urgent relief, and ensuring people who do not have homes to go back to being properly supported.
Currently, there are still around 9- Thousand people registered in evacuation centres around Honiara.
The NDMO is still coordinating and distributing disaster relief support to evacuation centres on an ongoing basis. It is working in conjunction with the Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children, World Vision, the Honiara City Council Emergency Operation Centre and the Internally Displaced Persons welfare cluster.
Meanwhile, Cameron Vudi, disaster relief manager of Red Cross Solomon Islands adds, the new threats are diseases like diarrhea, malaria and dengue.
This is possible after last week’s flash flooding on Guadalcanal which claimed more than twenty lives and thousands homeless.
Mr Vudi says while they are working closely with the Ministry of Health on the risk, there are possibilities of the outbreak because of the situation in the evacuation centers.
SIBC News understands thousands of victims are living in overcrowded evacuation centres, exposed to these diseases.