Samoa after Ofa

The rehabilitation begins

By Helen Fraser

WESTERN Samoa’s initial phase

of emergency and then short term relief after Cyclone Ofa has ended and the long-term rehabilita tion of the country is underway, Nation al Disaster Council chairman Dr Leiataua Kilifoti Eteuati says.

Eteuati, who also heads the Prime Minister’s Department of Western Samoa, was speaking to Pacific Islands Monthly on his country’s progress since the devastation of Cyclone Ofa in early February. The assessment of damage at NZ$3OO-million and the country being set back 20 years has been underlined, if not extended, by recent flooding which destroyed inland road on the main island of Upolu as well as hydro-electric power stations. Eteuati said the flooding was worsened by the lack of trees on mountains and hillsides after Cyclone Ofa, which has destroyed coastal roads, almost all food crops, villages and schools, and caused damage to harbour facilities.

The rehabilitation phase was moving ahead slowly, Eteuati said, and the Government was now awarding contracts for the major construction work involved.

“One of our main problems is that we

do not have sufficient companies that are locally based, so we have to bring in

outside companies, for example

Fletchers of New Zealand, to do the road building, and the Snowy Mountains Engineering Consultants company (of Australia) is also heavily involved.

“As well as we have had to go overseas to buy equipment, our Public Works Department is not equipped so all these things combined to slow our rehabilitation, particularly the

infrastructure roads, electricity supply

and water supply.” Roads have to be realigned and in many cases moved away from the coast.

One of the first things the Government had requested after Ofa, was that specialist teams survey the harbour for damage. Australian and New Zealand teams reported that the harbour itself was fine, Eteuati said, although not as deep as previously, and some work was needed to the fuel pipeline but tanker deliveries had gone ahead.

Despite the destruction of almost all schools, all have been operating since February 19. Eteuati said this was due to villagers making available their church halls, pastors’ homes or even family homes. Western Samoa has mostly village and district schools that are paid

for by villagers, with only a few Government schools.

“The response from Samoans has been nothing short of amazing,” Eteuati says, “villagers have got up by themselves and cleared up the chiefs, matais and local government leaders have organised and coordinated all their activities.

“Good leadership and coordination is one very important reason we’ve been able to get people to work instead of moping,” he said.

Assessments made by both overseas experts and the Agriculture Department have calculated that food crops in the ground are a mere 10 per cent of a normal May quantity, and Eteuati says, not much of this is any use for harvest.

While a tremendous amount of replanting is well under way, a mature taro crop takes eight to nine months. He said one of the concerns of the Government was to ensure that villagers did not harvest their taro early because this would mean there was no mature taro suitable for export in several months time.

The Government had carried out a distribution of four days food supplies in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, and in mid-June had begun a distribu tion of four weeks supplies of foodstuffs such as flour, rice and canned food.

Eteuati strongly condemned reports in the New Zealand media which described Western Samoa as becoming aid dependent and “the Ethiopia of the South Pacific”.

“The truth of the matter is that our

Council, where everything is coordinated, has really only given out one distribution and the formula we used would feed one person for four days. It’s almost five months now I can’t see how it is possible for anyone to say that Samoa is becoming aid dependent it’s absolutely incorrect,” he said.

“It is true that there is other assistance coming from families (in New Zealand) but that’s going direct. Three quarters of that first distribution was food bought by us and one quarter came direct.”

Eteuati said the records of all donations both material and cash were open to inspection by the public and the press. The records show where the materials have gone to and all cash donations had gone into a special account which was established from the start.

“We’ve heard overseas complaints and virtually all of it is ignorance, and a deal of it is political,” Eteuati said. Some members of the Samoan community in New Zealand had criticised the role of some local MPs in relief distribution on the grounds of favouritism and political patronage, allegations which have been firmly denied by Samoan authorities. A recent statement from the Australian High Commissioner to Apia, Basil Teasy, announcing A$ 100,000 that would go to buying food, had also commended the Council and the International Committee for its work.

Western Samoa’s National Disaster Plan was adopted by Cabinet in 1986. It established the National Disaster

Council, comprising heads of Departments, Government organisations, Non Government Organisations, and the International Committee made up of representatives of all diplomatic missions

in Apia along with regional and

international organisations and Government members.

Eteuati said the coordination of assistance had gone “exceedingly smoothly”, with efficient and effective distribution. He said there had been no problems apart from one case of confusion in overseas reports going out from Apia, which had led to the cancellation of a flour shipment. The Samoan Cabinet had called in the missions involved, explained that the reports were not correct and the matter had been resolved, Eteuati said, and the flour shipment went ahead, although late.

As Chairman of the National Disaster Council Eteuati stressed immediately after Cyclone Ofa that Western Samoa wanted to coordinate the relief and nearly five months on he sums up:

“I’m extremely proud of our people,

there’s been no feeling of depression if anything it’s been a feeling of let’s gel out there and help ourselves. It’s also demonstrated very strongly just how valuable the leadership and guidance, that we have in the organisation of the villages. The attitude in the country is very positive one of cheer and

helping others, although it’s real tough

times, because there is no money around and there’s no food.” □