By SHEILA LASIBORI
THE second phase of relief operations in Oro province will start today after the operations were suspended for the last two days.
This phase will see a much coordinated approach to the relief operations, where all the supplies from the National Government funding and from non-governmental organisations including church groups will be combined at the Vudal campus under the emergency operations centre.
Controller of the State of Emergency (SoE) Col Vagi Oala said the relief operations were suspended on Wednesday and yesterday but confirmed the second phase would start today.
“We suspended the relief operations simply because we were stocking up relief supplies,” he said, adding that there were some reassessments done by respective groups including the SoE on how relief supplies had been dealt with by each group.
“We will go back to where all the non-governmental organisations-funded supplies are stored and have them moved to one area so that the area becomes the central point of distribution.”
It was reportedly experienced during the operations that certain areas had received more supplies than others because different groups had dropped supplies without knowing that others had already done the same.
This reportedly resulted in some areas receiving more supplies than others.
Col Oala also said the storage containers at Vudal campus were stocked with supplies after several vessels brought in supplies in the last few weeks.
The Defence Force’s HMS Buna is now docked at Oro Bay wharf after arriving from Lae yesterday with more supplies, most of them bottled drinking water, some nails and Jet A1 fuel including diesel for vehicles.
PNGDF’s other vessel HMS Salamaua is also expected to arrive in the province also with supplies and fuel.