World Vision relief workers in the Solomon Islands are warning that disease outbreaks and lack of food and water in remote island villages may cause further deaths in the aftermath of the April 2 tsunami.

As many as 60,000 people—nearly half of them children—may still be in need of assistance. Most of the villages World Vision visited were deserted; almost all the people have fled to makeshift hilltop camps. In many cases there is nothing to return to, the force of the tsunami was so powerful it flattened everything, even tearing apart concrete buildings.

At least 43 people are confirmed dead from the tsunami and magnitude 8.0 earthquake. Others are still missing.

Report from the Scene
"Children and adults are sleeping out in the open and drinking contaminated water to survive. Moreover, malaria is prevalent in the region," said Tanya Rad, a World Vision aid worker. Her team recently surveyed needs in remote Simbo Island, along with ten villages and nine spontaneous camps around the hardest-hit town of Gizo.

"In many areas where we went, villagers told us we were the first relief workers they had encountered since the tsunami," said Rad.

Given the remoteness of the region and the tsunami's destruction of infrastructure, scores of villages in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands have yet to been reached. Some 90,000 people live on the hundreds of islands in the province, more than 320 kilometres from the capital.

"We are only scratching the surface of the impact of this disaster; a vast number of villages in this region are isolated right now. We still can't be sure how many people have been killed or made homeless," said Martin Thomas, another World Vision aid worker in Gizo.
 
"Some people are telling us they have been forced to eat dead fish and scattered coconuts because their food sources have been destroyed," Thomas said. "In many villages we visited, there were fresh graves, and we could actually smell the dead bodies. People are still terrified, because there are constant aftershocks. There is hardly anything left standing; everything has been flattened. It's just heartbreaking."

Aid Arriving
The first World Vision shipment of water supplies, food rations, shelter materials and other survival items has arrived in Gizo and surrounding areas. 

While limited transportation and communications slow relief efforts, World Vision plans to send additional shipments of aid as rapidly as possible. Urgently needed supplies include:

Donations Needed
World Vision—the largest non-governmental organization in the Solomon Islands—estimates it will need thousands of dollars for its emergency response and is appealing to donors worldwide.

Click here to make a donation toward World Vision's Solomon Island relief efforts.