disasters and agriculture in the pacific islands - Pacific Disaster Net

Fergus, the NDMO made the unprecedented stepof turning down offers of foreign aid assistance.The change of attitude is reflected in theNDMO assessment reports from Vanuatu's twomost recent cyclones: Cyclone Beti in April 1996and Cyclone Fergus in January 1997:Recommendations for Cyclone Beti:If the Government of the day's policy is topromote SELF-RELIANCE then this office canalso help in educating our people through thesetypes of situation to encourage; Island Chiefs to establish mutualcooperation in order to assist eachcommunity in resources and to find sometraditional ways to sustain survival in timesof disaster. Respective Provincial HQ to incorporatedisaster preparedness programme and toassist in disseminating information to theirregion and not to over dependent onNDMO. Individuals to get up and work so as toutilise their skills to meet the needs of theircommunity and to start using their commonsense for their individual benefits as well.With these few remarks I wish to make thefollowing recommendations:a) That there should always be cooperationbetween all community leaders to copeduring such situations i.e. it is certainly ourtradition and culture that we always sharewith other communities in need. Thereforeas assessed there are some areas concernwho are not directly affected by Cyclone sothis Office if there should be some exchangeof local food to those who are affected.b) If in any means that the Government willdecide to have some assistance providedwith justification from the report then thisOffice recommends supplementary seeds asnormally practised in the past.The communities in the affected areas arealready yelling for the supply of Rice etc. butagain this Office is no longer encouraging theidea, as there is no solution to the problem if therice is distributed 111 .Conclusions and recommendations for Cyclone FergusIt is important that we continually develop selfhelpwithin community, Provincial level tomaximally utilise existing resources beforedemands are sent to National DisasterExecutive Committee for additional support.Promotion of cultural values and self-reliance isimportant in order to discourage dependencyand to work hand in hand in achievingindependence. However, National DisasterExecutive Committee can only response whenthere is significant emergency demand affectinghuman life's and after the province hasexhaustedly utilise its resources and that humanlife is in real hunger, then emergency reliefsupply can be considered urgently.1. TAFEA Province and Agriculture FieldAssistant to keep monitoring the situationand to play their part before demands arerequested from the National DisasterExecutive Committee for further support.2. No emergency food relief food supply isrequire at present.3. Seedlings may be considered fordistribution.4. TAFEA Agriculture Field Assistant toinvestigate fungal on taro effects (Futuna).5. TAFEA Province to advice the people to replantcrops and not to wait. (Follow-up beAgriculture Field Assistants) 112 .111NDMO report on Cyclone Beti, 24 April, 1996112 National Disaster Management OfficeAssessment Report for TAFEA Province: TropicalCyclone Fergus, Jan. 25, 1997