Red Cross : Drought eases in Tuvalu, but problems remain

Long-awaited rains have finally eased the severe drought that has afflicted the tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu for the last six months, a New Zealand Red Cross official told Xinhua Friday. The Tuvalu government had lifted the state of emergency imposed on country's 12,000 people and was starting to loosen up its water rationing, Red Cross international operations and emergencies manager Andrew McKie told Xinhua in a phone interview. "It's been raining quite considerably over the last two days, and that will certainly help," said McKie. Both Tuvalu and the smaller New Zealand protectorate of Tokelau were now entering their wet season and water shortages were likely to end soon, said McKie. One of two New Zealand Red Cross personnel in Tuvalu had already returned home and the other would stay in Tuvalu until early next month to help the Tuvalu Red Cross to improve the nation's water situation. "A lot of the work now involves making sure people's roofs and guttering are in order and making sure pipes and water tanks are in a fit state to capture the water that's falling," said McKie. "Both our staff there are technicians and one who's left now is training local Red Cross volunteers on how to operate and maintain the Tuvalu government desalination plants, which are in various states of disrepair." The New Zealand Red Cross would be bringing its two desalination plants back from Tuvalu in the next week or two, but both Tuvalu and Tokelau could still face problems, said McKie. "We're moving into the cyclone season so the situation might soon be considerably different they might have too much water." Long-term solutions were needed to help the country weather future droughts, said McKie. "We need to be making sure that people are trained, that they have spare parts for the desalination plants, that people can capture adequate water supplies." The New Zealand Red Cross would operate long-term programs to raise awareness of issues involving health, self-reliance, clean water and sanitation. "This is the first major drought to which we have had to respond in this way. It could be a climate change issue or it could be a one off it certainly has to be part of their disaster planning." Earlier this month, the New Zealand Red Cross described the drought in Tuvalu and Tokelau as "grim" after neither country had any significant rainfall for six months and water rationing was at critical levels. The New Zealand Defense Force, assisted by Australian and United States forces, transported water containers, desalination units and other emergency supplies to the islands. In response to the emergency, the New Zealand Red Cross sent to Tuvalu 2,000 collapsible water containers, hand sanitizer, tarpaulins to capture rain and two emergency desalination units. Each desalination unit fits into two suitcases and can make a liter of drinking water each minute from seawater, which is enough to supply 450 people with 3 liters a day. When both units were deployed on Oct. 4 on the small island group of Nukulaelae, south of the capital Funafuti, it was reported the population of 350 had just 60 liters of drinking water left. The United Nations recommends every person has access to 100 liters of water every day.