Will relief reach rural and maritime communities?
This was the question posed by Nacula district spokesperson Lavenia Naivalu who questioned why authorities relied on data from rural and maritime communities but did not respond to their requests for assistance.
“During every disaster, we are requested to give our data of how many people are in evacuation centres, who’s home was damaged and so on but what I want to know is if we are being consistent in giving this data then why are we not being helped?” said Ms Naivalu.
“We see rations being distributed to these places in urban centres and we are left to wonder why these supplies do not make it to us.
“It is the same story in every government. We do our part as community leaders but our plea for assistance is not being heard.”
She said there was also a need for Government to do away with capacity building exercises for disaster management and resilience.
“Capacity building exercises only benefit a few.
“What those in power need to be doing is empowering our turaganikoro, our mata ni tikina with resources that will help them do their work in effectively implementing their disaster response plans.
“We have our traditional knowledge that was passed down to us by our forefathers. What we need is the resources to do our work effectively.”
