Wau Waria prepares ahead of El Nino funding
The Wau Waria District in the Morobe Province has already established a dedicated El Niño Response Committee, which will be responsible for the delivery of relief assistance when funding is made available.
Wau Waria MP, Marsh Narewec, said this in a statement when giving an update on the district’s preparedness, as well as the National Government’s promised allocation of K2.5 million.
Mr Narewec said that the district has not received its share of funding as yet, because these monies were deposited into the National Banking Corporation [NBC] for the first time, and this is something his district officers need to understand and comply with before accessing these funds.
He said that the district under the leadership of the Chief Executive Officer, John Orebut, has put in a working committee structure, who will immediately be able to assist communities, as soon as the funds are formally released by the bank.
"Like other districts in Morobe Province, Wau Waria is working through these new requirements, with a workshop scheduled for this week, to guide our finance officers through the necessary banking procedures, financial processes and requirements to help speed up the process of accessing the funds, Mr Narewec said."
Mr Narewec said that the District Management Team [DMT], led by Mr Orebut, had convened meetings to review drought damage reports, identify priority needs, and develop a proposed response work plan and budget, from October 13th to the 15th.
"To our people doing it tough in this dry spell, we hear you and we are working hard to get help to those who need it most at the earliest," Narewec said.
He also said that district has also established a separate oversight body, comprising of LLG Managers, Programme Managers, government officers, business houses, churches and community representatives, to reflect Mr. Narewec's strong emphasis on transparency and accountability.
Mr Narewec said that this will ensure decisions on disaster relief are not left solely to the district administration, but are subjected to broader consultation, scrutiny and endorsement.
The Committee met on Tuesday October 20th to finalize the plan, budget, and how help will be delivered, and have since deployed three teams across the district's three LLGs of Wau Urban, Wau Rural and Waria, to conduct awareness and collect firsthand information on the extent of drought-related hardships affecting individual communities.
Mr. Narewec also added that the district will deploy the KoboToolBox, which is a digital data collection platform, which will systematically gather drought impact information from individual wards.
He further added that this is done so they assist the most affected wards and do not rely on a blanket approach, because of the level of support and funding they currently have.
