Francis's encyclical Laudato Si denounces wasteful practices and highlights the importance of clean drinking water.

The prolonged drought has hit two-thirds of farmland and has so far cost Italian agriculture about two billion euros. Read more

Research by the Protestant United Church in the poverty-stricken Commonwealth nation found fathers in the remote highlands were giving away their daughters, who will be returned after the drought, for bags of rice.

The drought is also believed to have led to rising rates of HIV due to increased levels of prostitution. Continue reading

Typhoid and skin diseases are rife, malnutrition is on the rise, while, in remote areas, schools and medical centres have been shut down because there is no clean water.

Drought and frosts have wiped out subsistence crops in PNG's highlands, where villagers are facing months without food if they do not receive help.

Mt Hagen's Archbishop Douglas Young described the situation as dire with thousands of highland people in distress as their food gardens were destroyed, and now floods were having an impact.

"First it was frost and drought, now heavy rain and flooding," he said.

"It's one extreme to another.

"Across the archdiocese, most of my people are short of sweet potato so they are short of their staple.

"In the high risk, high altitude areas it will be months before the next crop comes on line."

About one million people live in PNG's highlands.

Many people live in isolated villages with no means of transport in or out. This is also the case in border areas like the vast Western Province.

"The real issue is whether people have roads. It is the remote areas that don't participate in the cash economy they are most affected," Archbishop Young said.

"If they are able to market other crops, they are able to get money and buy the food they need."

Archbishop Young said getting emergency food to remote villages was slow, and government distribution attempts were "not very successful".

"The Government is stuck with bureaucrats," he said.

"We were able to use our parish structure - people on the ground everywhere, volunteers and service providers.

"But sometimes the logistics overwhelm everybody. The cost of transport is twice as much as the food itself."

Sources

• Catholic Leader
• Image: ABC

The Red Cross in Papua New Guinea says drought-resistant crops and food supplies are desperately needed in the drought-affected Highlands.

The secretary general of the PNG Red Cross, Allison Dage, says an estimated three million people are suffering from food and water shortages caused by the worst drought in decades.

The national disaster management coordinator for the PNG Red Cross, Michael Sembenombo, says there are severe shortages of food and water.

But he says there is also a critical need to inform people about hygiene and sanitation issues to try and stop the spread of disease.

"People are eating kaukau that is being spoilt by the frost and also consuming water that is not safe."

Dickson Guina, chairman of the National Disaster Committee, told IPS that 2.4 million people across most of the nation's 22 provinces are confronting a critical lack of food and water.

There are also reports of many schools and hospitals forced to close as water shortages disrupt their operations.

"Our most urgent issue is water. We don't have a river close by which we can use, so we depend on rain for drinking. But there is only one water tank for every 10 households, which is not enough," Mangab Selau, a local Goroka resident said.

"We are now drinking well water, which is not safe for our children," another villager, Hilda Jerome, added.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• asopa.typepad.com.
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: abc.net.au

A state of emergency has already been declared in Enga and Southern highlands.

The El Niño typically linked to dryness and frosts are often an early symptom of the phenomenon, weather experts say.

Papua New Guinea's prime minister has visited areas affected by drought and frosts as the government deploys almost US$9 million in relief funds to affected parts.

O'Neill says the government is making preparations for a potential worsening of drought conditions due to an extended El Niño and the effects of climate change.

He says the National Agricultural Research Institute has embarked on visits to affected areas to provide free crop seedlings so that people can return to gardening and start replanting crops to sustain themselves.

Ezekiel Peter the general secretary of the PNG Gutnius Lutheran Church, has been appointed to lead its just established National Committee on Drought and Frost Relief.

He's based in Wabag in Enga province, one of the Highlands provinces hardest hit by the drought which has dried up rivers, and frosts which have killed vital food gardens.

Ezekiel is urging the national government to move faster in getting emergency food relief to drought and frost affected parts of the country.

He says while some areas have food reserves, the government needs to respond much more quickly to the disaster than it has so far.

The provincial administrator in Enga Province says they are hoping a consignment of food aid sent by the national government will arrive before the weekend.

Samson Amean says while about a quarter of a million people have been affected by severe frosts many others are suffering as a result of two months of drought.

Aid workers said it was too early to assess the damage to the country's coffee industry, but added that Papua New Guinea would face a potential humanitarian emergency if O'Neil's assessment comes to pass.

"Everyone has their own garden and they rely very heavily on it for food. If their gardens are destroyed by frost or it becomes very dry because of a lack of water then there could be a significant proportion of the population in food stress," said Blossum Gilmour, CARE Papua New Guinea's assistant country director.

Source

• reuters.com
• abc.net.au
• radionz.co.nz
• radionnz.co.nz
• Image: abc.net.au

Some people - especially women and children mostly affected by the water shortage - from the more remote communities are needing to travel long distances to get water from churches and schools who have a more secure water supply. This is putting extra strain on those other sources.

Caritas, in response to residents' concerns, is urgently providing a mix of traditional water collection systems and commercial water tanks to ensure drinkable water for more than 2400 people in five acutely affected villages.

Source

• Pacific Scoop
• Image: Islandvulnerability.org

‘An estimated 13 million people are in grave danger,' says Caritas Director Julianne Hickey. ‘This has been brought on by severe drought, poor harvests, and rising food prices - made worse by regional conflict.'

‘Drought is a natural phenomenon, but famine is caused by human action - or inaction,' she says. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly in the Horn of Africa last year because the international community took too long to respond. Eventually, concerted action by humanitarian agencies helped avert a far greater disaster in most of the affected countries. ‘There is no excuse for people to die of hunger in our world today,' says Ms Hickey.

New Zealand's Foreign Minsiter Murray McCully also announced on Wednesday that the Government will provide $1 million to a United Nations food relief programme in the Sahel.

Donations to Caritas for the Sahel crisis can be made by:

• Phoning 0800 22 10 22 to make credit card donations or
• Donating online using a credit card at www.caritas.org.nz or
• Posting to Caritas, PO Box 12193, Thorndon, Wellington 6144, New Zealand.

The international Caritas network is providing a coordinated response across five of the most severely affected countries in the Sahel - Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania. In Niger alone, about 5.5 million people face hunger because of drought. Without assistance, communities are being forced to rely on traditional coping mechanisms. Some of these practices can make things worse in the long-term, such as burning trees to make charcoal or selling-off of livestock.

Caritas is distributing essential food to the most vulnerable; seeds and agricultural inputs for planting; and setting up both Food for Work and Cash for Work programmes. Young children, and pregnant and breast-feeding women, are the focus of special food assistance. The Caritas network is also establishing emergency water, hygiene and sanitation facilities in Niger, as thousands of refugees flee fighting in northern Mali between the country's army and a rebel group.

‘Intervention now will help prevent a catastrophic event such as we saw in the Horn of Africa,' says Ms Hickey.

Caritas Humanitarian Programmes Officer Mark Mitchell has just returned from Kenya, where he saw the difference that good, effective relief programmes made after last year's Horn of Africa drought.

‘Lessons have been learnt from the Horn of Africa,' says Mr Mitchell, ‘in terms of responding quicker and noticing the warning signs and thresholds of hardship earlier.'

‘I've seen the importance of Food for Work schemes in putting in place better water supplies, using better collection methods and improving access to water in the long term.'

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: The Guardian

Christian Church of Tuvalu leaders report that the southern island of Nukulaelae is most severely affected by the extreme water shortage and locally produced food. The Church Secretary has reported that "the coconut tree tops have started falling off, breadfruit trees are dead, banana plantations are dried up and the traditional pulaka pits are rotten because of the drought."

A big meeting on climate change that has just finished in Panama was urged to consider the plight of Pacific nations.

Presentations from Tonga highlighted the impact of climate change in the Pacific - including the current water shortages in Tuvalu and Tokelau.

However, according to John Hunter from Australia's Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart, Sea level rise is not a major factor in the water shortages in Tuvalu and Tokelau at the moment.

The current drought affecting the central pacific is due to a La Nina weather pattern, but sea level rise as been suggested by some as being a factor in the water shortage in low lying atoll nations.

Source

• The Drum
• Pacific Beat
• Pacific Beat
• Image: Journey

The island groups of Tuvalu and Tokelau have declared emergencies, relying on bottled water and seeking more desalination machines. Parts of Samoa are starting to ration water.

Six months of low rainfall have dried out the islands. Climate scientists say it's part of a cyclical Pacific weather pattern known as La Nina - and they predict the coming months will bring no relief, with the pattern expected to continue.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says other islands in the South Pacific are also reporting water shortages.

He said New Zealand is carrying out a regional assessment amid fears the drought could lead to crop failures and food shortages.

Tuvalu

In Tuvalu supplies are precariously low after a severe lack of rain in a region where underground reserves have been fouled by salt water from rising seas that scientists have linked to climate change.

Families in Tuvalu's capital, Funafuti, are being allowed only two buckets of water a day a. The government estimates the country has five days of drinking water left.

A New Zealand Defence Force Hercules carrying Red Cross supplies and desalination units arrived in Tuvalu on Monday carrying water and desalination units. Andrew McKie from Red Cross New Zealand said they were transported to an island right in the south of Tuvalu, Nookilaulau, which although it's a small island was one of the ones worst affected by the drought

Tokelau

A priest who has just arrived in Tokelau says people are happy to hear that assistance is on the way.

Father Oliver Aro runs a mission on the atoll of Nukunonu, and says people are conscious of using water.

"As far as I have observed, people's lives are limited with things like hygiene, using their bathroom. They are more particular, because they don't want to waste water now."

The three main atolls that make up isolated Tokelau, a New Zealand-administered territory with a population of 1400, residents ran out of fresh water altogether last week and are relying on a seven-day supply of bottled water that was sent on Saturday from Samoa.

A Defence New Zealand Force Hercules carrying water containers flew to Pago Pago in American Samoa on Thursday, where it met up with a US Coastguard vessel. The ship, which has an on-board desalination plant to fill the containers, will then travel to Tokelau's three main islands.

Churches commend swift action and call for long term plans

The Right Rev Peter Cheyne, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has commended McCully for his prompt action. The Presbyterian Church has a strong relationship with Te Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu.

Bruce Mullen, from the Uniting Church of Australia's Pacific division says Australia may need to consider resettling people from the Pacific in the future, with a number of the island nations in the grip of a serious drought.

"The long term issue is that some of these atoll islands are not going to be sustainable for human habitation indefinitely. So the long-term issue is how we address relocation - there's nothing worse than having to dislocate people as a matter of urgency and trauma. It's much better to think these things through with a bit of time."

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Savali
• TVNZ
• New Zealand Herald
• Australia Network News
• Image: CNN

Four and a half million people in the country are in need of immediate food aid. Crops have failed, livestock have died, and water sources both for drinking and irrigation have dried up.