NEW GUINEA ISLANDS DROUGHT ASSESSMENT REPORT Compiled by: Philomena M. Emilio, Martin Warek, Mathew Poienou, Frank Pomoso, Misbil Garalom, and Josing Salimbi 15th of September, 2015 i Acknowledgements We wish to thank the New Guinea Islands Provincial Administrators, Provincial Disaster Co- ordinators, the National Agriculture Research Institute, National Department of Works, PNG Defence Force, National Department of Health, WaterPNG, PNG Red Cross, National Department of Agriculture & Livestock and others who have contributed in many ways to facilitate the goverments rapid assessment needs. We also are grateful to the Papua New Guinea Government through the National Disaster Centre for taking the lead in this assessment and providing funds and logistics for the team to conduct the assessment. Our Sincere gratitude is also extended to the communities in the 5 New Guinea Island Provinces who provided information for write up of this report. ii Contents Foreword ........................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... ii 1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 TEAM COMPOSITION ....................................................................................................... 2 1.2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ...................................................................................... 4 1.3 SITUATION OVERVIEW ................................................................................................... 5 2.0 IMPACT ................................................................................................................................... 6 3.0 NEEDS .................................................................................................................................... 12 4.0 RESPONSE ACTIONS .......................................................................................................... 13 5.0 COORDINATION .................................................................................................................. 14 6.0 RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................................ 14 7.0 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 15 Annex 1: List of Graphs ................................................................................................................ 16 iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The El Nino phenomenon has been experienced in Papua New Guinea since the existence of our ancestors. Drought basically is a slow onset disaster and can be caused by lack of rainfall. A similar disaster occurred in 1997/98 catching the government unprepared to respond to the situation immediately. Having learnt lessons from 1997/98 drought, the Government of PNG took a proactive approach in managing and responding to the drought situation by deploying four National Drought Assessment Teams to do a rapid assessment on the drought situation in the country. The New Guinea Islands Rapid Drought Assessment Team was deployed over a two week period, with National Disaster Centre taking the leadership role whilst other technical agencies such as, Department of Works, National Department of Health, National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI), Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), WaterPNG, and PNG Defence Force playing the advisory role. The team’s mission was basically to assess the impact of drought on food, water, health, livelihood and education. The Team accomplished the assessment within the timeframe given and some of the findings/highlights and recommendations are as follows. Atolls Shortage of food and water has been an ongoing problem for the atolls in Manus, and Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB). With the current drought situation, it has added to the existing problem, making the atolls more vulnerable. Food The teams found out that most gardens on the mainland of all New Guinea Island Provinces were producing sufficient food for both personal consumption and supplying to the markets. Only in areas were soil moist was unavailable gardens did not produce much. Health The team found that due to malfunctioning of the service delivery mechanism of the government, together with poor hygiene and health practices have led to the increase in reported cases of diahorrea, respiratory infections, skin diseases, and pneumonia. Water In all Islands Provinces, water is the main issue. People are now travelling distances to wash, fetch water for drinking and cooking, and wash their clothes. It has also become a commercial item for opportunists. Education All schools visited by the team closed early due to water problem. Closing schools early gave opportunity for both teachers and children to fetch water and also wash. 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Inter-Agency Drought Assessment Team of New Guinea Islands was deployed on 3rd September 2015 to do a Rapid Assessment on the impact of current El Nino phenomenon in the entire region of New Guinea. The team commenced in its mission findings in Manus then proceeded to New Ireland, East New Britain, and Autonomous Region of Bougainville and concluded West New Britain Province. Courtesy calls were made to the Provincial Administrators outlining the purpose and objectives of the teams visit to respective Provinces. The purpose of the mission was to support the efforts of the Provincial Administrations and to determine the conditions of food, health, water and access to livelihood. The outcome of the findings of the mission will assist the Government in addressing the impact of the current drought situation. 1.1 TEAM COMPOSITION The National Drought Assessment Team comprised of various key government agencies who were mobilized and deployed to the New Guinea Islands region to conduct a Rapid Assessment on the current El Nino phenomenon from 3rd to 14 September 2016. The team was led by Philomena M. Emilio of National Disaster Centre and the other team members included; Martin Warek National Department of Work Mathew Poienou PNG National Agriculture Research Institute Major Frank Pomoso PNG Defence Force Josing Salimbi National Department of Health Misbil Garalom National Department of Agriculture and Livestock 2 The team’s mission objectives were to: 1. Assess the extent of damage to determine level and type of immediate and long-term assistance required by the affected communities. The sectors to be assessed includes; food and water security, health issues, education and economic sectors 2. Carryout capacity assessment on the capabilities & responsiveness of respective provincial governments to manage the effects of El Nino. 3. Carryout capacity assessment on the capabilities of the suppliers and service providers operating in the provinces to meet the demands of the National and Provincial Governments relief requirements. 4. Carryout awareness on drought copying mechanisms and strategies with the Provincial Disaster Committees and affected communities. 5. Assist PDC establish and strengthen existing government structures at the Provincial, District and Local level for effective coordination of humanitarian relief operations. 3 1.2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION Papua New Guinea’s location in the Southwest Pacific region has a lot to do with its susceptibility to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Together with Indonesia and northern Australia, the surrounding seas are the warmest anywhere in the globe. The warmest sea surface waters in both the Southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean provides the moisture source for the high rainfall typical of the South West Pacific region. This means air moving over a warm ocean picks up water vapour. The moist air rises, or is forced up mountain ranges, where it cools and produces rain. However, with El Nino such as 1997 or the current, ocean temperatures are much lower than normal. Instead of warm moist air rising over PNG, cool air is descending. Predictions of the El Nino phenomenon were forecasted by PNG National Weather Service since 2012 advising that the impact of it would be much greater than that of the 1997/98 drought. The National Disaster Centre in collaboration with the National Weather Services and National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) took a proactive approach in conducting awareness to the communities in PNG. Towards mid of 2012, the entire country started experiencing rains and all advise on the El Nino phenomenon were cancelled. This year according to the National Weather Services of Papua New Guinea the effects of El Nino were recorded to have commenced in March 2015, however due to nonoccurrence of the El Nino as predicted in 2012, the National Weather Services was reluctant to provide the predictions to the Public. It was slowly and quietly monitored for 3 months and the weather outlook and forecast were made known in late June. Despite the announcement of the predictions, the impacts of the El 4 Nino phenomenon were becoming evident through out the country with much severe consequences seen in the higher altitudes of the country. Reports of widespread of severe impacts of drought throughout the country prompted the National Government to take immediate actions to address the issue and deployment of assessment teams to all regions of the country to