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!