By Sasha Silovo EMTV Online
Heavy downpours have brought on flooding in parts of the Solomon Islands. Villages in the provinces of Malaita and Guadalcanal are reported to be experiencing continuous rainfall, and people are now pleading for help to evacuate communities to higher ground.
According to Radio New Zealand, crops have been damaged by the floods and villagers have no access to clean drinking water. Villager, Rose Siku, told Radio New Zealand that drinking water has been contaminated, with very limited tank supplies available to the people.
Siku added that the livelihood of her family was severely affected by the damages to her crops.
The floods have been caused by two tropical lows; the first seen to the northwest of the northern islands of Vanuatu and the second low near the province of Rennel and Bellona, situated 160 kilometres of Guadalcanal.
The province of Rennel and Bellona is the main tourist attraction of the Solomon Islands, with the atoll of Rennel a World Heritage Site, and home to Lake Tengano, the largest inland lake in the South Pacific.
Guadalcanal Province, where the capital of Honiara is, was hit by severe flooding in 2014 as a result of Tropical Cyclone Ita. Said to be some of the worst flash flooding in the history of the country, the 2014 floods damaged homes, infrastructure and at least 22 people were killed with over 50,000 people affected.
Photo Credit: William Moore Stack Foundation – Flash floods in 2014
