Red Cross Sends Emergency Water Team to Marshall Islands

NEWS RELEASE
12 May 2013
New Zealand Red Cross Sends Emergency Water Team to Marshall Islands

New Zealand Red Cross is sending an emergency response team to the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) to assist with a potential humanitarian crisis.
The team of three aid workers and 348kg of equipment will reach RMI in the next 36 hours.

Due to an extended drought water supplies on the Island and the atolls have gradually depleted.

Remaining water stocks in some areas have also been assessed as tainted by high salinity levels and other contamination.

The Marshall Islands declared a state of emergency in April and this has now been elevated to a state of national disaster.

Current assessments indicate that between 3,700 and 5,000 people are severely affected by the drought, with a further 11,000 people being affected by crop loss.

“The situation is extreme with some families surviving on less than one litre of water per person per day,” says New Zealand Red Cross International Emergency Manager Mr Glenn Rose.

“We’re working closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and partners on the Marshall Islands to ensure the New Zealand response to this situation is timely and effective,” he says.

The New Zealand Red Cross aid workers will be tasked with establishing low capacity potable water relief, via reverse osmosis desalination units, to a number of small affected communities in the northern most affected atolls.

The team will also be responsible for developing water usage and hygiene plans in consultation with local communities.

The team is expected to return to New Zealand towards the end of the month.

Ends

Updates will be posted on the New Zealand Red Cross Website www.redcross.org.nz

Additional information on RMI:

Situated: North of Kiribati and Naru, approximately 10 degrees north of the equator

Geography: Land area comprised of many Islands based around 34 atolls of which 24 are inhabited.

Environmental vulnerability: Low lying atolls susceptible to high seas, typhoons and drought.

Population: 68,000

Capital: Majuro

© Scoop Media