Anglican Communion News Service

Papua New Guinea's worst drought in decades has prompted the Anglican Board of Mission in Australia to launch an emergency relief fund.

Lucy Palmer, a PNG based journalist, writes that the gardens have withered, the earth is scorched and the weak and elderly are starting to die. "In another month thousands of our closest neighbours could be facing their worst famine this century," she writes.

Missionaries working in PNG have told of lost crops, bushfires, water shortages and a growing hunger in a nation where most people depend on subsistence farming to survive.

Bishop Michael Hough from New Britain said that PNG faces "a looming tragedy". Many Highlands communities are moving down from the mountains in search of water, food and relief from severe frosts and fires. "This creates all kinds of health problems for the bigger towns in the area, and it also has a major effect on food production," the Bishop explained.

"People no longer have the backup gardens on which they used to be able to rely for food. There has just not been enough water to plant new gardens successfully, and so down the track a bit there is going to be an even more severe food shortage."

In East New Britain and New Ireland the water shortage has already reached the crisis stage, and water is being shipped in to provide basic needs. Mountain streams are drying up, Bishop Hough said, and people are dying from stomach ailments.

"Every time something manages to grow it is swept away in another fire. And everyone here knows that as soon as the rains do come, all the soil will be washed down and those hills ruined as gardens and hunting areas.

"Multiply that across the country and you have some idea of the tragedy that is looming."

The effects of drought, fires and frosts on the Highlands are starvation and sickness caused by contaminated water supplies. The Highlands also provides food for the whole country and all the communities depend on mountain streams for their water supply.

People are asked to remember PNG in their prayers and for help in providing relief through the ABM Drought Relief Appeal. Donations are being gratefully received by the ABM.

Article from: Anglican Board of Mission, Australia

Related News Entries

• Update on Drought Situation (December 23, 1997)
• Drought Continues in Papua New Guinea (December 5, 1997)