BY BEN BILUA
Gizo
A family at Koroivuku Village on Ranongga Island in Western Province is still waiting for promised disaster assistance more than a year after their home was blown away by a tornado.
Speaking to Island Sun, Chris Podokolo of Koroivuku said a government assessment team had already visited the area and a damage report was compiled and submitted to the responsible ministry for further consideration, but no response has been received to date.
“It’s been a year since we met with the government team. We were instructed to establish a local disaster committee to assess the damage and submit a report.
“We did exactly as we were told, but nothing has been forthcoming,” he said.
Podokolo said the prolonged silence has caused frustration for the affected family, who have been relying on support from relatives and the wider community to rebuild their lives with very limited resources.
Podokolo said the family will not be able to fully rebuild their house to its original standard due to the lack of external assistance.
He went to say that the recent bad weather has also damaged food gardens in the area, further worsening the situation for families who depend on subsistence farming.
“As a result, many community members now fear that submitting damage reports may be a waste of time.
“The failure to respond has forced people to lose confidence in the national government,” Podokolo said.
He said the community disaster committee has compiled another report on damages caused by the latest bad weather and submitted it to the provincial government, hoping it will receive attention.
“We don’t know what will happen from there. For now, we are just waiting and doing what we can to help the affected families,” Podokolo said.
He said the community disaster committee is looking forward to receiving updates from the responsible authorities regarding the long-awaited disaster support.