From the 'Disaster' Zone

In the past three weeks since floods there has been a lot going on!

As the flood waters were receding, the action started. It was like a bureaucratic humanitarian start-gun had fired, and the race was on...

Flooding along the banks of the Mataniko River. The foundations you can see here belong to a two story house which was swept away with a family inside.

All the NGOs kicked it to gear faster than a fast thing, albeit in a slightly uncoordinated and confusing manner. To be fair there was, and still is, an urgent need for basic humanitarian aid, food water shelter and medical assistance. But it seemed that even before the dust had settled the organisations were scrambling for top position, to see who could save the day the fastest and get the best media coverage. 

Mud from the floods inside a Ngalibiu School  classroom

Many of the displaced peoples in Honiara, legitimate or otherwise (approximately 10,000 at one point) were accommodated in designated evacuation centres. Most of the centres were schools and evacuees were packed in like sardines. It was 100 people to a single classroom at one of the worst I visited.

Using the schools as centres presents a big problem for the ministry of Education. The main goal of Ministry is to provide continued safe education opportunities for children, which is very difficult when half of the schools in Honiara now contain 1000’s of evacuated peoples, defecating, cooking, sleeping and generally living in them.

Ngalibiu School completely inundated with mud.

I have spent most of my time following the floods assessing which schools were damaged and to what extent, compiling this information and trying to formulate a rapid repair contract with an international project/construction firm. It seems that the vast majority of schools are fine, and basically structurally undamaged by the floods. However they are still, after many years of neglect, in state of disrepair and need urgent maintenance. Deciding where to draw the line on what is or isn't flood damage is very blurred indeed, and the opportunity to use this disaster as a catalyst for maintenance and repair work is very tempting.

With most of the bridges severely damaged on Guadalcanal,  the easiest way to get to remote schools is via motorised canoe. Safety and comfort are not their strong points

Some of the schools I have visited have been quite remote, like Ruavatu Provincial secondary school which needed a two hour motorised canoe ride to get there. The bridges were washed away by the floods and the only reliable way travel was by canoe. On this trip, we had about 10 people in the little boat and conditions weren't the best. Comfort was minimal. I had serious concerns when, about a km off shore, we hit a log which was partially submerged and nearly lost the out board motor!

Getting through the break in one of these things is similar to a surf lifesaving surfboat, except if you stuff it up there is a lot more at stake and nobody is wearing speedos.

At Ruavatu school we also assessed the local health clinic for flood damage. The clinic was fine, but I really enjoyed meeting the nurse there who casually mentioned he delivered a baby the day before, by himself. 

The nurse outside his rural health clinic in Ruavatu

The room he delivered a baby in, by himself, no biggie.

Over Easter I managed to get away from the chaos and stress of Honiara and go in search of the tropical island life I signed up for when coming to the Solomons! I’m not going to lie, it was fantastic, I took a canoe out to the Central Province and did some exploring, as well as spending the day on a private island resort playing volley ball and... this one’s for you Dyson... drinking coconut cocktails. 

Safety first, it's in the VSA contract that volunteers must wear life jackets when on any boats...

.. so it pays to bring your own unless you want the local ones- which I think were salvaged from the Titanic!
 (Fellow VSAer Emily Steel rocking the 60's PFD with style)

I would highly recommend visiting the Solomons. If you manage to avoid floods and earthquakes the place is an absolute paradise! I think that the tourism opportunity here is huge, and the Solomon’s could very well be the next Fiji or Hawaii with an adventurous take on the island getaway.

Not a bad spot for a BBQ! 

Flash flooding in Honiara

Somebody has played a terrible April fool’s joke on the Solomons. The ‘happy isles’ are in a state of national emergency, after extensive flash flooding on the afternoon of Thursday 3^rd April.

The flooding washed away entire communities and has severely damaged/ destroyed vital infrastructure.  To my knowledge, the event has been covered well in the New Zealand and Australian media. So, rather than give you the general details of the situation in the face of conflicting reports, I’ll tell of my experience -the facts of which I am certain.

The Mataniko River in flood, Chinatown below, Honiara to the left and Henderson Airport to the right.

 On Thursday it had already been raining for three days solid. I was at work in town on the fourth floor, we had spent the morning putting buckets under the drips and etc and rescuing computers from water that was leaking from the ceiling. Fairly standard stuff for the Solomons. So we didn't notice that the wind was now coming up, and rain intensifying. The power went out at about 12.30, which in itself wasn’t very alarming. So oblivious, I just continued with work.

Houses that survived the peak of the floodwaters along the banks of the Mataniko.

At about 1pm I heard from other Volunteers that there was flooding, and to consider going home, soon after I was contacted by the VSA in-country manager and asked to evacuate immediately. Luckily I had my running shoes with me, I put them on and left the building.

 In order to get to my house I needed to cross the Mataniko river, a kilometre North of central Honiara. There are two bridges across the Mataniko, one 'temporary' single lane WW2 Bailey bridge with a single central pier and the ‘main’ bridge; a two-lane threespan concrete bridge.

The Chinatown Bailey bridge before the floods.

...And after.

Firstly I went into the City Council to collect another kiwi volunteer (my housemate) who works there. I encouraged him to come with me across the river on foot and home, but he elected to wait for a lift, I did not protest and left immediately.

I got halfway to the Bailey bridge before the river was visible. It was just beginning to break its banks, and the bridge deck had water washing over it. It was only really at this point I realised how serious the situation was.

The view to Chinatown today across the river. Our house is on top of the hill behind

Without too much deliberation I crossed the main bridge.  On the other side, there were people trying to pull their longboats out of the rising waters. I helped, with loads of other people,  pull a few boats up onto the road. Then we saw a woman and child rush past caught in the river. The group abandoned the boats and rushed across the road, through the riverside settlements, trying to get to the riverbank or beach where we might grab them somehow, but it was useless.

The Mataniko today from the mainbridge.

After those first two, I saw maybe 15 people get washed out sea. There wasn't anything we could do without a rope. The flow was too strong and full of debris that jumping in was out of the question. The water was still coming up and I thought the bridge might collapse. Along with some others we tried to close the bridge, we succeeded for maybe 5mins but there wasn’t much we could do to stop the people who really wanted to get across.

In the end I decided to go up the hill to our house and regroup. Three of my other housemates had made it home, and we watched from the balcony as the river tore through the villages by the river I had just been in. The Bailey bridge was swept away but the main bridge did not collapse.

Debris and a ship washed ashore at the central market

Since then, we have for the most part, remained in our house. Our fifth housemate was stuck on the other side of the river, at a safe house for a couple of days but has since made it across. Amazingly the power is back on and the cell network is still running. As refugee centers and aid stations pop up in the next few days hopefully there is opportunity to assist with a more coordinated relief effort. For now donating food and sanitary supplied to collection points is all we can do.

North abutment of the main Mataniko Bridge. You can see where the bank used to be marked on the concrete abutment.

When the rain stopped yesterday I managed to get out and take some photos of the damage. The floodwaters scoured out the North abutment of the main bridge, all but separating the bridge deck from the North bank. A ramp has been put across the gap and essential vehicles and pedestrians are still being allowed across.

Found these guys playing in a drain on the side of the road. The spirits here are still high!

The people here are amazingly resilient. The feeling on the street is overwhelmingly positive. I fear now with so many people displaced, and living in even more confined conditions, dysentery and dengue fever may be the next thing to worry about.