Drought-stricken Palau could dry up completely this month, officials said yesterday as the Pacific island appealed for urgent aid from Taiwan and Japan, including shipments of water.
The tiny country of about 18,000 people declared a state of emergency last month, the latest Pacific island nation to do so as one of the worst ever El Nino-induced droughts in the region worsens.
“We’re still in the state of emergency, there’s a sense of urgency to address the crisis,” a government spokesman told reporters as the National Emergency Committee (NEC) met to discuss strategy.
A committee report prepared for Palauan President Tommy Remengesau offered a bleak outlook for the already parched country.
“Based on the current water level and usage rates, and assuming conditions persist unabated, a total water outage is likely to occur in the next two to three weeks,” it said.
Access to tap water is already rationed to three hours per day or less in Koror and schools are only open half days because they cannot give students enough to drink.
“The NEC has been in contact with the governments of Japan and Taiwan regarding support of materials and equipment, as well as direct shipments of water as necessary,” the committee said.
The Japanese embassy in Palau confirmed it had received a request for assistance and discussions were ongoing about what form it would take.
“The nature of what type of assistance and in what volume is expected to be finalized as soon as possible,” it said in a statement.
Palau also expects help from Taiwan. Palau is one of the 22 countries that maintains diplomatic relations with Taipei in the face of opposition from Beijing.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Eleanor Wang (王珮玲) said in Taipei yesterday that the government has provided Palau with financial assistance to purchase seawater desalination equipment and to fund other projects aimed at reducing the impact of the drought.
The NEC report added that the US military had been asked to supply portable water filtration systems to alleviate the increasingly desperate situation.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last month said the El Nino weather pattern is unlikely to ease before the second half of the year.
The Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia have also declared states of emergency, while Guam and the Northern Marianas are experiencing low rainfall.
In Koror, bottled water has become scarce as people stockpile dwindling supplies.
Resident Rolynda Jonathan said she constantly worried about her two children.
“There are no words to describe the level of stress, worry and burden of hauling water from one place to another,” she told reporters.
Additional reporting by StACY HSU
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
RSS