Helping with hope

PREVENTION: Matt Molloy and Samoan environmental health office Tunufai inspect a rubbish pit used by displaced families.

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Alhtough the news reports of tsunami-ravaged Samoa have faded away, the clean-up is still going on in the devastated regions.

Nelson Marlborough District Health Board health protection officer Matt Molloy travelled to Samoa in mid-October, and spent 10 days helping people with basic sanitation, health and water supplies.

The September 29 tsunami caused substantial damage and loss of life in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. In Samoa, almost 200 people died and hundreds more were injured.

Mr Molloy, a drinking water expert, stayed in the capital, Apia, on the northern side of Upolu island, and travelled for an hour each day to the south and southeastern parts of the island, which were those most severely hit.

"You're driving along and it's like a normal tropical island, with loads of trees and dense bush, and you come around the corner and it's just a wasteland," he said.

"There's still lots of coconut trees but whole villages are completely destroyed. Concrete foundations are all that's left, and there are big piles of rubble and twisted roofing iron, cars and trees, and boats 300 metres inland, twisted around things.

"There's nothing recognisable as it being a village."

The people of those regions have left the coast, and up to 500 displaced families are now living in the hills in the island's centre, where many have banana and taro plantations.

Attached to the Samoan Ministry of Health, Mr Molloy did environmental health assessments of the displaced families. He concentrated on "bare-bones public health work" – the basics of preventing disease.

"Our role was to go through issues like where are you getting water, where are you going to the toilet, where are you washing your dishes, where are you getting your food, and giving general advice about digging pit latrines and burying waste."

He also advised on the collection and storage of water, including preventing contamination and mosquitoes.

Mr Molloy said disease, which was the biggest threat to the families' health, seemed to be under control. There were elevated levels of a few diseases, "but nothing that I would call an outbreak".

The clean-up of the affected areas was still slowly going on, with diggers and bulldozers clearing rubble, he said.

Mr Molloy said most of the villagers' short- to medium-term needs had been taken care of, but in the long term they still needed permanent water supplies, proper sewerage systems, infrastructure and roads.

However, fewer than 20 per cent of the people he had talked with were going back to the coast. "They said, `No, we're building our new house in the highlands'.

"One lady I talked to had a massive infection on her foot and I said, `You've got to get down to the local clinic'. She said, `I'd rather die in the hills than go back near the sea'. Luckily, there was a mobile 4WD clinic that could visit her."

He found it "challenging" trying to balance doing his job with listening to some of the stories the villagers told.

"Some people were deeply affected. They're telling you how children were washed out of their arms. You listen to them through the interpreters and then you have to say, `Well, that's sad, but you really need to dig a toilet'."

Despite some having lost everything, the families were "really welcoming", he said.

"They were living under a tarpaulin but they'd invite you in to offer you drink and food, listened to you and respected you. I was just so impressed with what they'd been through and they were still so positive."

He was confident that the Nelson-Marlborough region had a good disaster management system, and he expected his experiences in Samoa to help the public health unit and the board with any emergency response. "It confirms that with the skills we've got, we do have a lot to offer.

"It was just a really good experience, if good is the right word – in those trying times, being able to use all the public health experience over the past 10 to 15 years. Really getting the feeling that you're helping was probably the best thing."

- © Fairfax NZ News