Oro Province Flood Disaster

POSTED ON 10 December 2009

Severe flooding has destroyed thousands of food gardens, damaged bridges and roads, and contaminated food and water supplies throughout Papua New Guinea’s Oro (Northern) Province. Many Oro communities were still rebuilding their lives after Cyclone Guba hit the Province in 2007, killing hundreds of people and destroying gardens, schools, bridges, and other infrastructure.

Please help us help the people of PNG this Christmas by donating to the Foundation’s Oro Province Disaster Relief and Food Restoration Fund.

The Kokoda Track Foundation received reports of thousands of individuals affected by the flooding this week and has now responded with a joint disaster relief response with the Anglican Church in Popondetta. 

Whole communities are struggling to gain access to basic food and clean water and the first priority of the response is to distribute these supplies to the worst affected areas. The Foundation’s on-the-ground partners, the Anglican Response to the Oro Disaster team, have identified 55 villages that are in urgent need of food, water, and medicines and there are emerging reports of diarrhoea and malaria in many communities around the Oro Bay area.

The Kokoda Track Foundation has committed 11,000 Kina to the disaster relief effort being coordinated by the Anglican Response to the Oro Disaster team, chaired by Bishop Joe Kopapa, head of the Anglican Church, Popondetta. The funds are being used to purchase and distribute rice, tinned fish, and clean water to priority communities. Those communities worst affected by the flooding are in the Ijivitari district.

The Anglican Church has committed a further 5,000 Kina to the relief effort and the Red Cross are working tirelessly to provide medical treatment and supplies to aid posts and health centres in the affected communities. The PNG National Government has committed 10,000 Kina to the relief effort.

After the 2007 cyclone that ravaged the Oro Province, the Kokoda Track Foundation funded the establishment of a large-scale Seed Nursery Project (Northern Province Food Restoration Program). The Foundation’s seed nursery teams have imported and multiplied urgently needed strains of agriculture and are currently distributing them throughout the Province to communities that are trying to rebuild their food gardens.

“In addition to the disaster relief funds that we have committed to the communities in Oro, we hope to use our Seed Nursery Project to help communities recover from yet another flood disaster” says executive director, Dr Genevieve Nelson.

“The flooding couldn’t have come at a worse time. These communities are still recovering from the devastating effects of Cyclone Guba that destroyed many lives in 2007. As we get closer to Christmas, we urge Australians to consider giving generously to the Kokoda Track Foundation to assist us with both the initial disaster relief response as well as the longer term reconstruction of lost food gardens throughout the Province”.

Please consider helping the people of PNG this Christmas by donating to the Foundation’s Oro Province disaster relief and food restoration fund.

To donate online please click here. Include "Oro Flooding" in the Purpose box when you donate.

To donate using direct deposit please transfer funds to our ANZ bank account: The Kokoda Track Foundation Ltd. BSB: 012 361. Account Number: 4831 62855

Alternatively, please send cheques to The Kokoda Track Foundation Ltd, PO Box 1674 North Sydney NSW 2059