Korea donates relief supplies to earthquake victims

THE Embassy of Korea presented disaster relief supplies worth US$200,000 (K652,977) on Friday in Port Moresby to the Southern Highlands earthquake relief coordinator.
Ambassador Kang Kym-gu said the people of Korea understood how the affected people from the highlands region were struggling and have donated the relief aid to help them.
The presentation was witnessed by emergency controller Dr Bill Hamblin, Southern Highlands deputy administrator Fiebik Kilip and PNG Defence Force officials.
The relief supplies presented includes food items, water tanks and water purifier.
Hamblin said some of the water tanks would be brought to Southern Highlands to replace others that were vandalised and stolen by people during the troubles in Mendi last month.
Hamblin said the help was appreciated as the warehouses that stored the supplies were broken into and most supplies stolen.
“I am looking forward to the arrest of those people and they should face the full force of the law,” Hamblin said. “We have most of our poor people in the rural areas such as Mt Bosave and Kutubu suffering and the ill-minded people stormed the warehouse.”
He said because of the supplies that were destroyed, it affected the relief effort phase as they need to replace those supplies.
He said the emergency controller in charge of earthquake relief was still in charge of the relief supplies in Southern Highlands and would be working closely with the provincial disaster coordination team and others.
“We are doing all we can to make sure our people affected receive relief supplies to help them restart their destroyed lives,” he said.
Kilip said the remaining relief aid supplies have been relocated to a new warehouse in the outskirt of Mendi town.
He said undisclosed amounts of relief supplies stored at two warehouses in Mendi were ransacked in the night of the Mendi incident.
He said the relief supplies (both food and material) have been moved to Oiyarep village in the Imbonggu district.