Vanuatu President fears the worst

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
Waiting for news...Vanuata delegation at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Shadrack Rubart Welegtabit, Director, National Disaster Management Office, President HE Baldwin Lonsdale, and Mr. James Bule, Minister for Climate Change and Natural Disasters. (Photo: UNISDR)

Waiting for news...Vanuata delegation at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Shadrack Rubart Welegtabit, Director, National Disaster Management Office, President HE Baldwin Lonsdale, and Mr. James Bule, Minister for Climate Change and Natural Disasters. (Photo: UNISDR)

SENDAI, March 15, 2015 - In an irony of ironies, the President of Vanuatu, Baldwin Lonsdale, has found himself stranded at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction along with some of the country’s top disaster management officials while a state of emergency has been declared back home.

President Lonsdale left from his capital, Port Vila, early last week believing that the storm system which developed into Category 5 Cyclone Pam, was heading south-southeast from the Solomon Islands. By the time, the Vanuatu Delegation landed in Sendai, the cyclone had turned south-southwest.

Today he blamed climate change for the increasingly unpredictable pattern of cyclonic activity affecting his country in recent years. In earlier times, the country rarely suffered cyclones in March but has been hit now three years in a row by cyclones in the third month of the year.

Doing a live interview today on BBC World TV, he fought back the tears as he contemplated the plight of his people. Although he could only confirm two deaths in Port Vila and that 30 or more people have been injured, he is fearful that loss of life could be much higher among the 260,000 people on 65 inhabited islands.

“This monster cyclone Pam is the worst ever to hit our country. We are a resilient hard working people but this is a heavy burden to bear. It is a major setback to our plans for the development of our country. We will need assistance to meet the humanitarian needs of the people. Hundreds have lost their homes. Roads and bridges have been washed away. The airport is damaged. Schools and health facilities will have to be rehabilitated. It will be like starting over again in many ways.”

President Lonsdale was waiting today for results of an aerial reconnaissance of the affected areas. He fears that losses will be extremely heavy across the country, particularly in the capital which took a direct hit and in the southern part of the archipelago in the province of Tafea close to New Caledonia.

Shadrack Rubart Welegtabit, Director of the Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office, said that because of the continuous rain across the country in recent days there is a high risk of landslides such as the one that engulfed the village of Puarante last March and killed seven people.

“Two weeks ago we had very heavy rain which caused flooding in Port Vila where people were using canoes to get around as the roads were so flooded. Cyclone Pam will have a major impact on agriculture and people dependent on cash crops like coconuts and kava.”

Mr. James Bule, Minister for Climate Change and Natural Disasters, said: “There has certainly been a change in weather patterns in recent years. At the moment in Vanuatu it is unusually hot and humid for this time of the year. We are also seeing the effects of rising sea levels in the form of coastal erosion.”

He said Saratamata, a government centre on Ambae island, Penama province, was forced to move 100 metres inland to escape rising seas. In addition, the country is prone to earthquakes and has five active volcanoes. All three are hoping to return home as soon as possible to become directly involved in the response effort but in the meantime are meeting with donor countries at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction which is being attended by representatives of 186 States.

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