Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 11, 1 November 1997 — PAPUA NEW GUINEA DROUGHT [ARTICLE]

PAPUA NEW GUINEA DROUGHT

(SYDNEY) — A comprehensive assessment of Papua New Guinea's drought and frost-stricken provinces has identified 150,000 people in urgent need of food and waler. In addition, the assessment also concluded that if the situation is not remedied within six months many

islanders may die as a result of starvation. A team of Australian scientists and aid workers handed an interim report on the effects of the worst drought in 50 years to the Papua New Guinea government, after traveling throughout the country's provinces. A large-scale international relief effort to bring food and medical supplies to the struggling region is expected. Team leader Dr. Bryan Allen from the Australian Nahonal University Research School of Pacific Studies said villages in the country's highlands had been hardest hit by the drought, with staple food crops all but wiped out.