Relief supplies not enough

 By MALUM NALU

FOOD relief supplies have come to drought-affected villages in Nomad in the Middle Fly district of Western, but this is not enough, says Australian relief worker Sally Lloyd, who spent the last three weeks there.

Lloyd, who told the heart-wrenching story of villagers starving and dying in Middle Fly last month, said rice had been flown in by the Prime Minister’s Department after she spoke out.

However, she said this was not enough to sustain the people as they waited for their food gardens to grow. Lloyd helped in distribution of the rice, which had to be equally shared among thousands of people, with a 10kg bag of rice having to be shared among 14 people.

“It was only enough for two, maybe three days maximum,” she told The National on Saturday. 

“Less than 700 grammes (of rice) per person had arrived.

“For now, we’ve seen that stopped.

“For the past month, there’s been no food delivery to Mougolu or surrounding areas. There had been further deliveries to Nomad with less population. 

“We’re hoping that those deliveries will resume.

“If it was a weather problem causing the delays, but we’re hoping to see those resumed.” Lloyd said she went out to one of the villages – Awobi – which has had five deaths since Dec 20, four of which were attributed to food shortage “because people were very weak”.

“Sometimes, people were really weak from hunger and then, they got malaria or some other diseases and died very quickly,” she said.

“There’s been a very big increase in the cases of malaria, a lot of people with fevers, fainting, and things like that.”

Lloyd said she had names of 11 people who died in a corridor of villages in Wasubi ward, including Awobi.

“In that corridor, they seem to have received less rain and they’re subsistence farmers with a very small amount of sago and their banana crops died, so obviously they’re very short on food,” she said.

“Other villages called Igimi and Segemi are also very short of food.

“Those villages are still really struggling and many other villages as well.

“Obviously, they’ve received a little bit of rain and food crops are going to take between three and eight months to grow, if they can get them to grow.”