'I was terrified': fears over child mental health in post-quake Papua New Guinea

by Verity Bowman, theguardian.com

April 9, 2018

Close to 25,000 under 18s suffering psychological damage in chaos and violence following catastrophic tremors, says World Health Organisation

Stanton, 10, standing on the remains of his home in Daga, Papua New Guinea. Photograph: Thomas Nybo/Unicef

As many as 25,000 children in Papua New Guinea are in desperate need of psychological support following a series of devastating earthquakes, warned the World Health Organisation.
The PNG government estimates 270,000 people are in need of urgent assistance, including 125,000 children. Of these, 15% to 20% need psychological help, the WHO said. The 7.5 magnitude earthquake on 26 February was followed by almost 200 aftershock tremors in the last 40 days. Some of these have reached a magnitude of 6.5.
According to Kate Dischino of Americares, a charity working in the country, the aftershocks and lack of stability are causing significant psychological issues.
“The need for mental healthcare is much greater than anyone had anticipated.
"It’s been nearly 45 days since the first earthquake happened and people are still uncertain how they’re going to see their families and where they’re going to sleep at night.
"The aftershocks are truly frightening, so mental health and psychosocial survival becomes more of a priority every day.”
Among those worst affected are children. Karen Allen, Unicef representative to PNG, said lack of water and shelter and threat of disease compound mental trauma, adding to the suffering caused by ongoing violence in the country.
“Children are still being confronted by fear, loss, confusion, family separation, deteriorated living conditions and disruption of social and school activities. "Psychological damage among children should not be overlooked.
" It can have a negative impact on brain development, mental health and overall wellbeing in the long run.”
Children who have suffered trauma have an increased risk of delayed development, mental health disorders, depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide, she added.
“I was terrified when the earth started shaking,” Stanton, 10, told Unicef, standing on the remains of his home in Daga, after the earthquakes destroyed seven out of ten homes in the village.
 “I tried to run far away, but it was dark and I was confused.”
Stanton managed to escape but said his family had been left with nothing.
Existing tensions in the area are worsening the situation.
There has been a renewed outbreak of violence in Hela province, one of the worst hit by the earthquake, with animosity aggravated by poor mental health and scarce resources.
 Thousands have been displaced and are unable to return to their villages.
“It is children who are witness to this and sometimes even become involved in it, either as victims in some cases – when they’re shot or they’re slashed – or sometimes the men put the weapons in the hands of children,” said Allen.
“There are children even under the age of 10 running around with weapons.
"It’s this normalisation of extreme violence that will affect children the most.”
Before the earthquake, children in PNG were already at high risk of violence and abuse.
 According to Unicef, about 75% of children report experiences of physical abuse and about 80% experience emotional abuse during their lifetime.
A recent Médecins Sans Frontières report showed that 12,000 cases of family and sexual violence are treated each year in Tari Family Support Centre, Hela province.
With 100 schools affected and five totally destroyed, 15,000 children are out of school. Unicef has responded by creating child-friendly spaces, intended to provide both emotional and educational support.
Unicef child protection specialist Ali Aulia Ramly said these safe temporary learning spaces would help give local children the support they need.
“The teachers and volunteers are trained to assist children in expressing their feelings and emotions and to process [them] in a culturally appropriate way.
*We are building their resilience.”

Aftershocks hit Papua New Guinea as it recovers from a remote major earthquake

by Sabin Zahirovic, theconversation.com
April 8, 2018

Another powerful aftershock hit Papua New Guinea this weekend as the recovery effort continues following February’s deadly magnitude 7.5 earthquake, with many thousands of people dependent on humanitarian aid.

Ten-year-old Stanton in the ruins of his home following the earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea in February. EPA/Thomas Nybo/UNICEF

Aid organisations such as CARE Australia and UNICEF are still seeking donations. The Australian government has sent medical staff and other support to help.
Some have criticised the PNG government’s efforts as “too slow”.

Read more: The science of landslides, and why they're so devastating in PNG

But the earthquake highlights the challenge for emerging economies like PNG in deploying relief efforts into remote areas to deal with natural disasters.
And the same geological features that make PNG a rich source of mineral deposits are also part of its earthquake problem.

The earthquake hits

The February earthquake struck the western Highlands provinces of the Pacific island nation, and a series of aftershocks, including several of magnitude 6 or more, continued to shake the region during the following weeks.
Although parts of PNG are particularly earthquake-prone (especially in the north and the islands, along the plate boundary), February’s earthquake was quite exceptional.
It occurred in a usually less active part of the plate boundary and was remarkably powerful when compared with the short (modern) instrumental earthquake record. The strength and frequency of the aftershocks has posed an additional threat to local populations and key economic infrastructure.

Distribution of the aftershocks magnitude since the main quake (as of April 9, 2018). The size and colour (small to large, yellow to red) indicate aftershock magnitude and the number of days after main shock. The white shaded ellipse represents the area of greatest slip during the main shock. Green diamonds represent the main gas fields. USGS/Gilles Brocard, Author provided

On average 10-20 major earthquakes (magnitudes 7 and greater) occur on Earth every year.
Most of them occur far from densely populated regions, such that only a few draw media attention.
The mountainous regions of New Guinea, known as the fold and thrust belt, have been geologically active for millions of years.
But the long recurrence interval of major earthquakes (every few centuries) combined with the short period of the instrument records (just a few decades) gives us the false impression that seismicity is uncommon in this region.
The February earthquake occurred due to the activation of a major fault system in the forested foothills, between the Papuan highlands to the north and the Fly River lowlands to the south.

Australia collides

The Papuan highlands have risen due to the collision between the Australian and Caroline/Pacific tectonic plates over the past five million years.
Despite this collision, the Australian plate continues to move at about 7 cm a year to the northeast, in geological terms a quite remarkable speed, leading to a build-up of strain in the continental crust.
Much of this strain is released at the plate boundary along northern New Guinea, usually with more frequent but less powerful swarms of earthquakes. It is this motion, driven by the churning interior of our planet, that leads to major adjustments to the GPS datum and reference coordinates for the entire Australian continent.
But few people are aware that this very motion of the Australian continent is what causes the seismic and volcanic activity in New Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia.
As Australia moves northward, the entire New Guinea margin acts as a bulldozer, collecting Pacific islands, seamounts and other topographic features. New Guinea represents the leading edge of the advancing Australian continent, which causes continental crust to fold and crumple over a broad region.
This is a well-known process in plate tectonics, where the oceanic plates are known to behave quite rigidly, whereas the continental regions tend to deform over broader diffuse boundaries that resemble plasticine over geological timeframes.
But the continental deformation process results in poorly defined (often due to the thick tropical vegetation cover) and intermittently active fault systems in the continent.
Over the duration of mountain building in the past five million years, the areas of highest deformation have shifted across the range.
Today most of the deformation in PNG takes place north of the mountainous area, where it generates a lot of earthquakes.

Underground riches at risk

Some substantial crumpling of the continental crust still occurs across the southern foothills.
The folding and thrusting has generated geologically young folds, within which a large part of PNG’s gas and oil wealth has accumulated.
The intense tectonic activity has also led to the enrichment of mineral resources, including mines sourcing gold, copper, silver, nickel, cobalt and a suite of other ore types.
It is this tectonic activity that determines the delicate interplay of economic benefits from raw materials, and the often-devastating and usually-unpredictable effects of natural disasters on society.
Although the February earthquake occurred at the very heart of one of the largest and newest gas fields in the country, the industrial installations, at the highest international standards, have not suffered major damage from the tremors.
But the ongoing disaster triggered a temporary halt in gas extraction, as the facilities require inspections and repairs. Unfortunately, and unusually, the earthquakes have struck in some of the most remote parts of the country.

Coping with disaster

Hela province is one of the poorest in PNG and its people are unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with a disaster of this scale. As many as half a million people were reported to be affected by the earthquake. At least 145 people reported killed.

Read more: Five active volcanoes on my Asia Pacific 'Ring of Fire' watch-list right now

The Highlands Highway, the one real road into the region, was badly damaged and this is the major source of food and medicines.
 Many feeder roads have gone.
Papua New Guineans are resilient but it is likely that more external assistance will be needed to ensure that a physical disaster does not become a greater human tragedy.
Even so the full extent of the disaster has still to be revealed, while aftershocks continue to trigger secondary hazards including major landslides that have isolated a large number of communities.
Not only are local communities facing the immediate hazards of further earthquakes and landslides, they face a protracted and costly recovery ahead.

The Conversation is an independent news organisation that sources articles from academia.

Can Manus island go from detention centre to tourism hot spot?

Travel Weekly
travelweekly.com.au
April 9, 2018

The Australian government is funding a study to help develop tourism on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
The island, which was previously used by the government to detain asylum seekers, is still home to around 600 refugees and asylum seekers.
Four asylum seekers have died on the island, with two more deaths in Australia after contracting fatal illness on the island, reports the ABC, and many more have been victim to violent assaults including at the hands of the PNG police and Defence forces.
The treatment of asylum seekers on the island has prompted condemnation from branches of the UN, reports SBS.
The study is being conducted through aid contractor Abt Associates and will review the tourism industry on the island, aiming to identify “strengths, weaknesses and area of growth”.
The contractor is advertising for a six-month advisor role which will pay around $146,000 plus allowances, reports the ABC.
The advisor will be in charge of producing a 12-year tourism plan as well as collating a database of the natural and man-made sites on the island and advertise them on a new promotional website.
The island’s government had requested Australia’s help in boosting tourism, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to help generate jobs and economic growth.
Manus has only two hotels, with one currently used to house guards for the asylum seeker accommodation that replaced the detention centre, the ABC said.
The chief executive of PNG’s Tourism Promotion Authority Jerry Agus, said the island has great potential for tourism.
“It’s not about what you hear about and what you read in the papers.” he told the ABC.
“One of the greatest areas of strength they have in terms of tourism is diving, surfing is one of them, and there’s a lot war relics in Manus Island as well.”

PM O’Neill congratulates Commonwealth Games medal winners and all athletes competing for Papua New Guinea

Office of the Prime Minister

Papua New Guinea

 Prime Minister and Minister for Sports Peter O’Neill has congratulated the first two Papua New Guinea athletes to win medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and thanked the coaching staff and families of all athletes who are competing.
(Note that after making this statement, weightlifter Steven Kari won the first gold medal for PNG).
 O’Neill applauded every athlete who has made it to the games and said the country is behind them all the way.
"I congratulate all athletes who qualified for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast,” he said.
"We know a lot of sweat and sacrifice has been required to reach to the Commonwealth Games and each of you must be congratulated.
“So far we have two silver medals in weightlifting events.  

"I congratulate Morea Baru and Dika Toua for their tremendous efforts to win silver in their weightlifting events.
“We look forward to welcoming you and all athletes home after the Games.
“There are still many days to go in this Games and I look forward to many more thrilling competitions for our athletes.
“But regardless of where our athletes finish, so long as they put in their best they can compete with pride and Papua New Guinea is right behind you cheering all the way.
“On behalf of the Nation I thank all Papua New Guinea athletes for their efforts, and I hope they wear our National colours with great pride.

" This is a time that you will remember for the rest of your lives.
“Our Government has demonstrated our commitment to developing sports in our country, from the grassroots to the highest level of competition.
“We will continue to enhance sports, from the regions to the professional training facilities.”
O'Neill said elite athletes are where they are today not only because of their talent and hard work, but also because of the people who support them.
“We must also thank all of the people behind our athletes who have made it possible for our young men and women to compete," he said.
“The coaches, trainers and administration and support staff who guide our athletes help them to give their best.
“We must also never forget the struggle and effort that is put in by the families of our athletes.
“To reach the Commonwealth Games standard requires families to be right behind our athletes, to make it possible for them to train and focus on their athletic careers.
“Family members are overcome with pride when they see their loved ones competing on the world stage.”

Educating people of what to do in a tsunami in Papua New Guinea

pg.undp.org| April 6, 2018

52- year old Evodia Stanley is a woman with a lot on her mind.

Evodia Stanley, Ward Member for Ialakua Ward in Kokopo District. Raluana Primary School is in the vicinity of Ialakua Ward. ©Kim Allen/UNDP

As a mother and grandmother, her family’s welfare is her main priority and Evodia does everything in her power to ensure they are safe and well. Since her election as the first female local level government member for her Ialakua community, Evodia’s concerns, now more than ever, include her family and wider community.

But there are some things that are beyond Evodia’s powers, such as natural disasters. Three weeks ago (on March 9th) a 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook her community and the wider region in her part of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Fortunately, there were no casualties.

Ialakua is located in East New Britain Province (ENB), home to active volcanoes, called Vulcan and Tavuvur, which are located on the Pacific Ring of Fire. This makes Ialakua and the rest of ENB highly vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis.

While preventing earthquakes and tsunamis are beyond Evodia’s powers, it is within her means to ensure her constituents, particularly the children, know what to do in the event of an earthquake or a tsunami. Considering safety of children and wider community, Evodia was a keen supporter to increase awareness amongst her family and community members in Ialakua.

Then, an opportunity was made possible thanks to the awareness drive on earthquake and tsunami preparedness through collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), National Department of Education (NDoE), National Disaster Centre (NDC), Department of Mineral Policy and Geohazards Management, and the Provincial Disaster Office. The awareness drive included face-to-face interactions on earthquake and tsunami drills between experts and teachers, as well as provincial and local level government officials. Following initial school and site assessments, earthquake and tsunami drills were conducted in George Brown Secondary and Raluana Primary Schools. Raluana Primary School is in the vicinity of Evodia’s community.

Out of the 697 students of Raluana Primary, 120 students in grade five were selected to participate in the tsunami drills. Apart from them, there were 196 observers which included elementary school students, community members, youths, and representatives from different sectors in the province.

During the tsunami drills, students were taught on how to identify early warning signs of tsunami, what to do in case of earthquakes and tsunami. The schools were also supported to develop their own emergency response and evacuation plans.

“I am grateful to all the partners involved in the tsunami drills,” said Ms. Stanley.

“I am also proud that the tsunami drills were carried out in my ward. The youth and community representatives from my ward were involved in the drills and learned important life skills. We will share what we have learnt here and inform our families and community groups about earthquake and tsunami preparedness,” she added.

UNDPs Disaster Risk Management project is assisting the NDoE and NDC to carry out tsunami drills in three schools, two in East New Britain and one in Milne Bay Province.

This is part of ‘Strengthening School Preparedness for Tsunami in the Asia Pacific’ funded by the Japanese Government. PNG is one of 18 countries participating in this regional project.

Papua New Guinea's Steven Kari smashes Commonwealth clean and jerk record to retain men's 94kg weightlifting title at Gold Coast 2018

By Daniel Etchells at the Carrara Sports Arena 1 in Gold Coast 
Sunday, 8 April 2018
Inside the Games

Papua New Guinea’s Steven Kari successfully defended his Commonwealth Games title in the men’s 94 kilograms weightlifting event after breaking the 17-year-old clean and jerk Commonwealth record here today at Gold Coast 2018.

He was trailing Canada’s Boady Santavy by 13kg with two attempts remaining in the clean and jerk but incredibly managed to lift 216kg to claim victory with a total of 370kg.
It smashed the previous Commonwealth record, set by Australia’s Alexan Karapetyan in November 2001, by 6kg.
Victory for Kari also secured Papua New Guinea a first gold medal of Gold Coast 2018.
Santavy had to settle for the silver medal with a total of 369kg.
The 20-year-old managed 168kg in the snatch, breaking Karapetyan’s Commonwealth Games record of 167kg set at Manchester 2002.
He then finished on 201kg in the clean and jerk after failing with his last attempt at 206kg.
Santavy is currently facing criminal charges related to a hit and run back home but Commonwealth Games Canada President Rick Powers said he was eligible to compete because he has not been convicted of a crime.
According to a news release from Sarnia police dated March 19, Santavy was charged with failing to remain at the scene of collision after turning himself in.
He was released on a promise to appear in court, The Canadian Press reports.
Completing the men’s 94kg podium was India’s Vikas Thakur, who finished with a total of 351kg.
He managed 159kg in the snatch and 192kg in the clean and jerk.
Samoa’s Siaosi Leuo ranked third in the snatch with 156kg but bombed out in the clean and jerk after failing with all three of his attempts at 200kg.

Team Wellington in ruthless form in dismantling of Papua New Guinea

boxscorenews.com | April 7, 2018

OFC Team Wellington sounded a warning to their remaining OFC Champions League rivals with a comprehensive 11-0 dismantling of Papua New Guinea champions Lae City Dwellers in their quarterfinal at David Farrington Park on Saturday.

Team Wellington's Nati Hailemariam celebrates his hat-trick. OFC via Phototek

The hosts dominated from start to finish with Nathanael Hailemariam opening the scoring in just the 6th minute on his way to a first half hat trick while Angus Kilkolly headlined the scoring with four goals.
Scott Hilliar, Andy Bevin, Justin Gulley and Mario Barcia shared the rest as Wellington secured a two-legged semi-final against the winner of Auckland City and Solomon Warriors who play on Sunday.
Wellington also rattled the woodwork three times as Lae City struggled to adapt to both the cold conditions and the way Wellington were able to stretch their defence and exploit the resulting space.
The one-sided win equals the biggest victory in the Champions League era of Oceania club competition – set last season by Auckland City’s 11-0 win over Malampa Revivors – and establishes a new mark for the largest win in a knockout phase.
“We’re delighted,” said Team Wellington coach José Figueira, whose side were coming off a defeat to Auckland City on last week’s grand final of the New Zealand premiership.
“The boys were pretty eager to get out on the field after the disappointment of last week and I thought we were exceptional today.
“Every game we play we want to play our way and dominate the games by attacking. We were disappointed last week that we didn’t cause as many problems as we normally do in the final third and that was a big focus this week at training.
“It was Lae today, but I think it was any other team today they might have been on the end of same thing. I’m delighted with every area of the game today.”
Lae City Dwellers coach Peter Gunemba was still shell-shocked after the Wellington onslaught in what was an historic first ever playoff game for Lae.
“It’s too much to comprehend,” Gunemba said.
“It’s a game. It’s gone now and we look ahead to next season in the Champions League. We did not expect the score would be this way.”
Hailemariam grabbed the first of his treble in the sixth minute when he gathered the ball on the edge of the area before lifting it over an on-rushing Ronald Warisan and eight minutes later, as the rain began to fall, Hailemariam pounced on a poorly-cleared ball to slot his second beneath the Lae ‘keeper.
Scott Hilliar met a Mario Illich corner with a firm near-post header to add Wellington’s third in the 17th minute and Angus Kilkolly pushed it out to five in the 40th minute with two goals in as many minutes.
Andy Bevin laid the ball on a plate in front of goal for Hailemariam to complete his hat trick just before the sides went into the sheds with the scoreboard showing 6-0 and it took Kilkolly 45 seconds after the restart to round out his treble, heading a Roy Kayara cross in off the upright.
Kayara was again involved in Wellington’s eighth, forcing a save from Warisan that fell to the feet of Andy Bevin who made no mistake from close range in the 57th minute.
Justin Gulley produced a fine solo effort 11 minutes later, cutting in from the right flank before riding the challenge of a would-be tackler and beating Warisan one-on one before Kilkolly and Mario Barcia added two more goals for good measure in injury time.
The quarterfinals continued on Saturday with Vanuatu’s Nalkutan FC hosting Marist FC from the Solomon Islands and the conclude on Sunday with Auckland City FC meeting Solomon Warriors before AS Dragon host Fiji’s Lautoka in Tahiti.

Earthquake measuring 6.5 magnitude strikes Papua New Guinea: EMSC

by Michael Perry, reuters.com
April 7, 2018

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A powerful 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea on Saturday (3.48pm local time), the European earthquake monitoring service reported.
The very shallow quake was only two kms (1.2 miles) deep and 93 km (58 miles) southwest of Porgera in the Enga province, said the EMSC.
Quakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire”, a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injury.
The quake was 82 kms (51 miles) southwest of Porgera in Enga province and 47 kms (30 miles) deep, said the USGS. Earlier European quake monitor EMSC reported it at 6.5 magnitude and only two kms (1.2 miles) deep, but later scaled it down.
The earthquake happened just two months after a 7.5 quake struck the same highlands area, killing 125 people and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
February's quake also damaged mining and power infrastructure and led ExxonMobil Corp to shut its $19 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, the country's biggest export earner.
Miners Barrick Gold Corp and Ok Tedi Mining also reported damage to infrastructure.
Some of the resource companies in the region, such as Oil Search, are still about eight weeks away from full operations.
Oil production at the Gobe field had already returned to normal.
The remote and mountainous region is struggling to recover from February's quake, which caused landslides that buried homes and cuts roads.
The United Nations estimates that some 270,000 people are in need of immediate assistance and 43,116 people remain displaced in 44 locations and care centres.
The United Nations pulled out its aid workers just two days before the latest quake due to violence from residents.
They have vowed to return once it is safe to do so.

More to follow...

David Chung quits OFC presidency amid rumours of political and financial corruption

by Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson, insideworldfootball.com
April 6, 2018

April 6 – David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and one of FIFA’s highest ranking officials, has resigned after seven years in the job.

David Chung

 A short statement from the OFC said Chung, FIFA’s senior vice-president and an important ally in Gianni Infantino’s 2016 presidential election victory,  took the decision “after much deliberation, citing personal reasons.”
Chung’s resignation follows that of his general secretary at the OFC, Tai Nicholas, who left in February after almost two decades in the job. No reason was given for his departure though FIFA were known to be on the ground in the region following multiple reports made to the governing body of political and financial corruption within the OFC.
The lingering suspicion of financial impropriety surrounding Chung is only enhanced by attempts to examine the latest OFC accounts. No audited accounts have been made publicly available since 2015 – when Chung was re-elected. Audited accounts from 2006 to 20015 are available. Chung had a lifestyle that saw him living outside of Papua New Guinea, though his football powerbase was in the country.
Chung’s exit comes ahead of a special general meeting of the OFC Executive committee, which had been called for this Sunday in Auckland. At that meeting , according to the New Zealand Herald newspaper, the body was considering a vote of no confidence in Chung.
Chung, head of the Papua New Guinea FA and a member of FIFA’s highest-ranking committee – the Bureau of the Council  compromising each confederation president plus Infantino – was elected unopposed as OFC head in 2011, after the suspension of Tahiti’s Reynald Temarri for breaching FIFA’s ethics and confidentiality rules.
Chung, as the longest serving FIFA vice president, was effectively Infantino’s number two should he be unable to fulfil his duties. That role would now fall to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa who Infantino beat in the last FIFA presidential election in 2016.
Chung was a controversial figure both within the OFC but particularly in Papua New Guinea  where he was president of the national federation.  Accused of vote-rigging at the 2016 PNGFA elections – his opponents said that he had illegally excluded supporters of rival candidate John Kapi Natto.
Since then Chung had lost any significant control of football in the country to a rival federation set up by the clubs.
Club support for the breakaway Football Federation PNG (FFPNG) – which has  Kapi Natto at its head -and its own breakaway club competition, the National Premier League (NPL), has grown rapidly with more than five times as many registered clubs as the official federation which had repeatedly failed to run competitions as clubs deserted it and lost confidence in its governance.
Neither the breakaway federation or its league are recognised by the OFC or FIFA, despite their widespread support at home.
Chung’s departure throws FIFA’s smallest confederation back into chaos and comes at an awkward time in terms of public exposure, with FIFA’s annual congress taking place in June just before the World Cup. That congress is already a political battleground over FIFA’s increasingly controversial World Cup 2026 hosting vote – assuming that it gets to a vote which is starting to look less likely.
FIFA’s linen still looks dirty, whether it will be aired fully in Moscow in June is unlikely, but with the OFC there are signs that a clean-up, or at least a hot wash, may be under way.

One Papua New Guinea's mother’s journey from violent discipline to positive parenting

BY RASHINI SURIYAARACHCHI
UNICEF
POSTED 06/04/2018

Last year in Papua New Guinea, a group of parents came together to talk about a topic many people avoid: violence at home.
Martina was one of those parents.
She’s a mother of five children in the coastal village of Simbine.
 Like all parents, she wanted her children to grow up healthy, strive at school and pave a bright future for themselves.
 Just like many parents in her community, Martina used violent discipline to make sure her children did their chores and worked hard at school.
The young mother didn’t know the dark consequences of physical punishment: that children exposed to violence at home may have more difficulty learning, exhibit violent and risky behaviour or suffer from depression and anxiety.
Then Martina joined UNICEF’s Positive Parenting programme.
For six weeks, she came together with other parents in her community to talk about their challenges and learn new ways to discipline their children without violence.
Read, in her words, how Martina transformed her home from a place of punishment to a space of open communication.
“I used to hit them all the time.
“Before I received the Positive Parenting training, I used to try my best to look after and discipline my children so that they would listen to me.
“I would hit them when they made me angry, I would hit them when they didn’t listen to me.
" I used to hit them all the time. I thought that was the right thing to do at the time.”
“At the Positive Parenting training, I realised that children have their rights too.
"When our children start learning how to talk, it is important that we don’t discipline by hitting them.
"My responsibility is to guide them to do the right things and discourage them from doing bad things.”

Things are different in Martina’s home since she attended UNICEF’s positive parenting training. Now, her children can grow up safe from physical punishment. © UNICEF/Suriyaarachchi

“It is important that we don’t discipline by hitting them.
"My responsibility is to guide them to do the right things.
“I tried using some of the techniques I learned at the training and I can see some changes in my house.
" I see that my children listen to me more now and they do what I ask them to do,” says Martina.
And it’s not just her children’s behaviour that has changed - the training has also helped her relationship with her husband.
“Now when I raise concerns about our children to my husband he tries to help me address these concerns - something he rarely did in the past.
"For example, I told my husband that we needed to prepare our three-year-old daughter for school and he agreed to help me buy the things that she would need for school.
"That’s a big change for me.

Martina’s children Odilia (below) and Martha will now grow up in a peaceful home. © UNICEF/Suriyaarachchi

“The future I want for my children is that I do my part as a parent to look after them well so that they can get a good education, get a good job and look after me and my husband later on in life.
"I also want my children to become good responsible community leaders when they become adults.”

Violence can mark forever

Children who are exposed to violence in the home are denied their right to a safe and stable home environment.
Many are suffering silently and with little support.
Emotional and physical abuse doesn’t leave children as they grow up - it can affect them for life.
Children who are exposed to violence in the home are more likely to be at risk of:

• Emotional stress and developmental harm. Infants and small children are especially susceptible to impaired cognitive and sensory growth;
• Behaviour changes including excessive irritability, sleep problems, emotional distress, fear of being alone, immature behaviour and problems with toilet training and language development;
• Poor concentration and focus in class, trouble keeping up at school and barriers to academic achievement. In one study, forty per cent of children exposed to violence at home had lower reading abilities than children from non-violent homes;
• Personality and behavioural problems in the form of psychosomatic illnesses, depression, suicidal tendencies and bed-wetting;
• Developing substance abuse issues, juvenile pregnancy and criminal behaviour; and
• Creating violent homes as adults and parents. The single best predictor of children becoming either perpetrators or victims of domestic violence later in life is whether or not they grow up in a home where there is domestic violence. Children who grow up with violence in the home learn early and powerful lessons about the use of violence in interpersonal relationships to dominate others, and might even be encouraged in doing so.

Help children grow up safe

Every child has the right to grow up safe from harm.
Violence in the home shatters a child’s basic right to feel safe and secure in the world.
Children need the violence to stop.
In Papua New Guinea and other countries in our region, UNICEF is supporting parents and governments to create safe communities for children.
We’re providing emergency medical care and training community leaders to prevent and respond to violence.
75 per cent of children in Papua New Guinea say they’ve experienced physical violence but if we all work together with parents like Martina, a whole generation of children can grow up in safe homes.

FIFA Vice-President David Chung quits after audit raises questions

by TIM RÖHN and TARIQ PANJA, nytimes.com
April 6, 2018


The head of the smallest of FIFA’s six global confederations suddenly resigned on Friday, surrendering his seat on FIFA’s ruling council and becoming the latest senior soccer executive to depart the sport amid accusations of corruption.

David Chung, right, resigned Friday as the president of one of FIFA's six confederations after an audit raised questions about a multimillion-dollar construction project. Credit Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Photo by: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

The executive, David Chung, was the president of the Oceania Football Confederation, whose 14 members wield little power competitively or politically in FIFA. But Chung, of Papua New Guinea, had outsize influence as the most senior of FIFA’s eight vice presidents.

Chung cited personal reasons for his decision, but the announcement came as he found himself under mounting pressure to step down after an audit into a multimillion-dollar project to build a new headquarters for the O.F.C.

Chung’s exit, only days before the O.F.C.’s annual meeting and two months before the World Cup opens in Russia, raised unwelcome questions for FIFA about the probity of the leaders who run the world’s most popular sport. Chung had led the 14-member regional body, made up of New Zealand and a handful of Pacific nations, since 2010, when his predecessor was caught in a vote-selling sting by undercover reporters. In 2015, a broad investigation led by the United States Department of Justice revealed corruption was deeply embedded at the highest levels of world soccer.

O.F.C. members were planning to suspend Chung for a “gross dereliction of duty or an act of improper conduct” at Sunday’s annual meeting, according to documents and emails reviewed by The New York Times. That followed details in a forensic audit conducted on behalf of FIFA by accountants from PwC, and also reviewed by The Times, which raised the possibility of fraud and bribery in the construction project.

Chung did not respond to a request for comment. But he denied the allegations related to the construction project in a letter to a member of the O.F.C.’s board without providing details, saying he would only discuss the matter with his lawyer to protect his innocence.

FIFA issued a two-sentence statement acknowledging Chung’s resignation and quickly removed his biography from its website, before later confirming that the investigation had highlighted “potential irregularities in the construction process of the OFC Home of Football.”

FIFA said it has suspended its financial support to the confederation because of the issues raised by the review. FIFA typically pays $10 million a year to each of its six confederations.

Chung’s departure leaves the Asian Football Confederation as the only regional body to retain the same president as it did in May 2015, when the United States unveiled details of a sprawling scheme of corruption going back more than two decades. That case led to charges against the leaders of the two confederations based in the Americas. Internal investigations later yielded multiyear bans for the former leaders of FIFA and European soccer’s governing body, UEFA. Africa’s longtime president was toppled in an election last year.

The ousters of his peers left the Malaysian-born Chung as the most senior of FIFA’s vice presidents, a designation that carried with it a $300,000 annual salary and the position of first replacement for FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino.

Chung also was an enthusiastic early supporter of the joint North American bid to stage the World Cup in 2026, pledging his confederation’s collective support as far back as April 2017.

The audit of the O.F.C. started a year after Infantino’s election in 2016, after FIFA found discrepancies with the headquarters project for which FIFA, then headed by Sepp Blatter, had provided a $10 million loan. O.F.C.’s longtime secretary general, Tai Nicholas, suddenly quit in December, also citing personal reasons.

The audit found that Chung and Nicholas, without issuing a tender, had hired a company with no experience of the work required for the design of the project, which involved building offices, two soccer fields and other facilities in Auckland, New Zealand.

Investigators then found a series of close relationships between companies advising the O.F.C. on the project and picked to complete the project. All the companies were set up shortly before being awarded contracts, “with no track record of experience, and subcontracted their works to other companies,” an executive summary of the PwC report stated. It found that a separate company set up by Chung might have had links to one hired to work on the project.

The accountants suggested FIFA go to court to find out more. “Due the limitations in assessing the financial records of the external parties it is recommended to commence civil proceedings in New Zealand in order to get access to these records, substantiate or refute the concerns with regards to bribery and corruption this review has raised, and ultimately attempt to recover any potential losses from the third parties,” the report, code-named Project Gunemba, concluded.

Details of the investigation’s findings were sent to members of the O.F.C. executive board, leading the president of Tahiti’s soccer federation, Thierry Ariiotima, to email Chung last week to explain that he expected FIFA would “suspend you very shortly.”

“Based on the documents that I received which are compromising, I invite you to take the right decision in order to protect O.F.C.,” Ariiotima wrote. “As a friend, and FTF president, I sincerely believe dear president that the best decision would be for you to resign immediately.”

The president of New Zealand’s federation, Deryck Shaw, separately wrote to O.F.C. colleagues, telling them “there is very strong evidence to suggest there has been systemic corruption at the highest level within the OFC.” Shaw said he understood the PwC report also had been sent to New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office.

FIFA declined to say if its ethics body was investigating Chung. That department remains one of the busiest at FIFA; when Infantino removed its two top officials last year, the officials claimed the move would affect “hundreds” of continuing cases.

© 2018 The New York Times Company.

Wafi-Golpu mine prefers to release tailings into Huon Gulf: Feasibility study

The Wafi-Golpu mine in Morobe prefers to release its tailings into the waters of the Huon Gulf, according to an updated feasibility study report released last week.

Tailings management 

Three types of tailings management options have been considered during the various studies undertaken since 2012, those being various terrestrial tailings storage facilities, dry-stacking and DSTP (deep sea tailings placement).
The study of 45 sites for terrestrial tailings storage options for the Wafi-Golpu Project has highlighted the following:

•  The required storage volumes would result in a large disturbance footprint over an area which can have  high traditional heritage and economic value, high biodiversity, and/or displacement of communities and their livelihoods;
•  The project area has high seismicity and complex geology, including active faulting, which could at some sites result in liquefiable soils. Complex design would be required to partly mitigate such factors, and that would carry high risk and high cost in both construction and ongoing operation;
•  The project area has high rainfall and large water catchment, which would require significant and costly water management treatment solutions. Any structure would contain very large amounts of water with commensurate risks;
• Due to terrain and geotechnical complexity, multiple storage sites and types of tailings management would be required for a life of mine solution; and
• The mining operation would be exposed to complex tailings operations, closure and rehabilitation risk and the residual risks for terrestrial tailing storage facilities would remain high in perpetuity.

The assessment on dry-stacking concluded that the risks of dry-stacking are essentially the same as a conventional terrestrial tailings storage facility.
DSTP studies have been conducted as part of the 2017-18 work programme. Oceanographic and environmental studies in the Western Huon Gulf to date have confirmed that area to be a highly suitable environment for DSTP.
 It hosts a deep canyon leading to a very deep oceanic basin with no evidence of upwelling of deeper waters to the surface.
The tailings are expected to mix and co-deposit with a significant, naturally occurring loading of riverine sediments from the Markham, Busu and other rivers that also are conveyed via the Markham Canyon to the deep sea.
Around 60 million tonnes per annum (mpta) sediment has been estimated.
The pelagic, deep-slope and sea floor receiving environment has a very low biodiversity as a result of the riverine sediment transport, deposition
and regular mass movements (underwater landslides).
 These same riverine sediments are expected to also bury the co-deposited tailings at closure and promote benthic recovery to pre-mine conditions.
Oceanographic studies have confirmed that a 200m deep outfall for the tailings disposal will meet the draft PNG Guidelines for Deep Sea Tailings Placement, prepared by the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences on behalf of the State of Papua New Guinea.
In the light of the factors considered in relation to terrestrial tailings storage, the outcomes from the study of 45 terrestrial sites and the outcomes of the DSTP study work undertaken to date, the updated Feasibility Study identifies the use of DSTP as the preferred tailings management solution.
Papua New Guinea has three existing active DSTP operations (Lihir, Simberi, Ramu Nickel), one permitted (Woodlark) and one closed (Misima).

Tribal conflict and trauma hamper disaster relief in Papua New Guinea

by Amber Schultz, smh.com.au
April 6, 2018

The children were receiving trauma counselling, playing games and doing puzzles at a UNICEF makeshift childcare centre following a month of devastating earthquakes in Papua New Guinea when the bullets started flying.
They were taking a break from the stresses caused by the February 7.5-magnitude earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks that have decimated villages and shattered communities in the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces, when a fight between two tribes broke out.

Children play with a carer in a makeshift childcare centre in PNG.Photo: UNICEF

UNICEF education specialist Simon Molendijk was with the children in Tari.
“We were organising an activity at child centre, making sure kids can have moments of happiness, keeping their minds off stress and worry,” he said.
“Then the shooting started.
"We had to keep them calm, put them on the floor to make sure they wouldn't be hit by the bullets.”
While the children were safely evacuated and returned to their families, Molendijk said the event represented an “ongoing emergency” in the region, hampering disaster relief efforts.

Falling rocks hurt five-year-old Douglas Jacob when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea on February 26. It is estimated 125,000 children are in need of help in PNG.

More than 180 people were killed after the initial earthquake on February 26, according to the Oil Search Foundation, a not-for-profit working in health and education.
The PNG Government estimates 270,000 people are in need of urgent assistance.
Of this, 125,000 are children.

Young earthquake survivors learn how to properly wash their hands and prevent illness, at a UNICEF-supported child space in Mendi, PNG.

However, a combination of landslides, flooded roads, and tribal fighting has made reaching remote communities difficult.
Local journalist Scott Waide said the fights were the result of a long-running feud between tribes, but few details were known about the nature of the conflict.
“They’re payback killings, payback for other deaths,” he said.
Waide said the latest fight erupted last week in Tari, where UNICEF was caring for the children.
Five locals were killed, two were minors.
Hela Governor Philip Undialu said the fights were a direct result of the earthquakes.
“The enemy tries to move to safer places. They come across one another and attack,” he said.
Undialu said 100 military personnel had been mobilised to help secure public safety in Tari.
Monash University politics and international relations lecturer Aleks Deejay said natural disasters often spurred conflict in developing countries.
"A big natural disaster can be such a sudden, disruptive event that if they strike in certain areas that are already experiencing vulnerabilities related to security they can ignite more serious conflict," he said, attributing conflict to the depletion of resources, disruption of public institutions and infrastructure, and migration.
Secretary General of the PNG Red Cross Uvenama Rova said tribal fights in the region were a constant ongoing issue, and had disrupted the communities' ability to help one another.
"The PNG way is to help your neighbour, but with tribal conflict, it is difficult to reach out to those affected," he said.
The Red Cross will on Monday assist the Koma, Tawa, and Denaria communities close to the earthquake's epicentre which have not yet received aid, delivering non-food items including mosquito nets, jerry cans, hygiene kits, medications and other necessities.
Amid the continuing aftershocks, the violence, overcrowded conditions and lack of necessities in temporary shelters, humanitarian organisations say they are concerned about the impact of disease and trauma in the wake of the destruction.
Before the earthquakes, children in PNG were already at high risk of violence and physical and emotional abuse, UNICEF reported.
“The behaviour of children has definitely changed [since the earthquake]. Kids are withdrawn, they don’t like to go out. The toxic stress affects them not only now, but also later in life,” Molendijk said.
UNICEF PNG representative Karen Allen said in a statement the organisation’s main concern was the psychological health of the children.
“Psychological damage among children should not be overlooked. It can have a negative impact on children’s brain development, mental health and overall wellbeing in the long run,” she said, adding  children who have suffered from trauma have an increased risk of delayed development, mental health disorders, depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide.
However, children are not the only ones impacted.
Oil Search's Stephanie Cous-Capmbell, standing second left, said women were at risk of violence within affected communities.
Oil Search Executive Director Stephanie Copus-Campbell has been based in PNG since the initial earthquake, and said she feared the worst for villagers' mental health.
“People are really, really, really distressed… they’re scared,” she said.
She said women were most at risk as their trauma was compounded by the risk of gender-based violence.
“There’s a lot of concerns for women.. Families are experiencing more stress and trauma, it’s an environment where violence is more likely.”
In conjunction with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Papua New Guinean government, Oil Search has established care centres for women and "waiting villages" for expectant mothers to give birth. It has also deployed two counsellors trained in trauma counselling.
The organisation had turned its attention from physical injuries to disease and psychological trauma in the wake of the destruction.
“We first assisted in injuries, but now it’s cases of disease. There’s diarrhoea, respiratory conditions, crowded situations," Copus-Campbell said.
“We keep hearing of more deaths.”
UNICEF PNG is currently setting up 26 child-friendly spaces to provide psycho-social support services for more than 14,000 children in the severely-affected provinces of Hela and Southern Highlands.
The organisation is in need of $17 million to continue its relief effort, providing clean water and sanitation in temporary shelters, as well as vaccinations, malnutrition treatment, and support for children to return to school.

Oceania President Chung resigns for personal reasons

by Greg Stutchbury, uk.reuters.com
April 6, 2018

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - David Chung has resigned as president of the Oceania Football Confederation, citing personal issues, the organisation said on Friday.

Chung, who was made a senior FIFA vice president last September, had been in charge of the confederation since 2011.
“David Chung, has resigned from his position effective immediately,” the OFC said in a statement.
“Chung, who has been at the helm of OFC since 2011, took the decision after much deliberation citing personal reasons.”
The OFC Executive Committee is scheduled to meet on April 8.
The OFC was not immediately available for further comment.
Malaysia-born Chung was initially temporarily appointed to the OFC presidency in 2010 following the one-year suspension to Tahiti’s Reynald Temarri for breaching FIFA’s ethics and confidentiality rules.
Chung was elected unopposed to the OFC role for a four-year term in January 2011 and then re-elected in 2015.
The 55-year-old, who is also in charge of the Papua New Guinea FA, has been embroiled in a struggle at home for the last 18 months with a breakaway body of rival soccer administrators.
Chung’s opponents have alleged that he had illegally excluded voters for their candidate John Kapi Natto in the PNGFA elections in 2016.
Chung has denied the allegations.
Last year, the rival administrators set up their own soccer federation, the Football Federation PNG (FFPNG), and a club competition, the National Premier League (NPL).
Neither is recognised by the OFC or FIFA.
“Players wishing to participate in this league should be aware they are playing for a club and a league not recognised by the PNGFA, OFC and FIFA,” former OFC secretary general Tai Nicholas said in a statement at the time.
“No club that participates in this league can qualify for any PNGFA, OFC or FIFA competition and players who are not registered with the PNGFA cannot be transferred to another club overseas or be covered under the protection of the FIFA and OFC regulations.”
The 12-team NPL, which attracted the country’s most successful club Hekari United, began last season and Kapi Natto told Australia’s ABC earlier this year they had plans to expand.
Only six teams completed the officially sanctioned National Soccer League last season and the playoffs were cancelled.

Papua New Guinea: Highlands Earthquake Situation Report No. 6 (as of 5 April 2018)

reliefweb.int | April 5, 2018

Highlights

• 270,000 people are in need of assistance across four provinces of Papua New Guinea’s highlands.

• 43,116 people (8,135 households) remain displaced in 44 locations and care centres.

• 80 per cent of health facilities are open, but almost 55 per cent have no water.

• Humanitarian operations in and around Tari, provincial capital of Hela province, have been suspended due to the rise in tension and outbreak of inter-communal fighting since 28 March.

• US$ 43 million has been mobilised from the private sector for earthquake response and recovery, primarily as contributions to government efforts.

Situation Overview

On 26 February 2018, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit the Highlands Region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), affecting an estimated 544,000 people in five provinces – Enga, Gulf, Hela, Southern Highlands and Western provinces, with Hela and Southern Highlands the most affected.
More than 270,000 people, including 125,000 children, have been left in immediate need of life-saving assistance.
The latest tracking figures available from the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) implemented as part of the Shelter Cluster response, indicate that 8,135 households remain displaced by the earthquake, or 43,116 people, across 44 locations and care centres.
These figures may change as new locations are assessed.
Many of those displaced and now living in the care centres and other locations will not return home and the communities are in the process of defining alternative areas to relocate.
Where housing has been damaged or destroyed, shelter materials and tools are urgently required as is training in their use. Community leaders and land owners have reportedly started negotiating land for the displaced families, to be completed through traditional land and family ties.
 Assistance strategies should support this process of resettlement where possible.
Landslides caused by the earthquake have negatively affected food security, with many root crops and family vegetable plots destroyed.
Damaged roads have also reduced access to markets and public services.
The earthquake has also caused new damming as well as resulting flooding in some areas.
Of 86 reporting health facilities in Hela and Southern Highlands province, seven in Hela and 11 in Southern Highlands have reported being severely damaged, and 26 and 21 respectively have no water.
While 80 per cent of health facilities in the affected areas are now open, many health workers have been affected by the earthquake and also require assistance. Psychosocial counseling for earthquake survivors affected by trauma and loss is urgently required, and Health Cluster partners are making efforts to train counsellors.
 Many children are reportedly afraid to return to their schools, even where school facilities are open.
The integrity of water sources has been affected and are not safe for drinking. Rainwater collection systems have been destroyed.
With limited access to safe and clean water, waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea are a significant risk.
An outbreak of dysentery affecting 25 people in Makuma, Ilallibu Pangia district, Southern Highlands province is suspected to be due to a contaminated creek.
Since 28 March, humanitarian programmes in and around Tari, the provincial capital of Hela province, have been suspended due to increased tension and inter-communal fighting.
Many partners have temporarily relocated humanitarian staff to other locations, including to the Southern Highlands provincial capital, Mendi, in view of the situation.
 Humanitarian partners aim to resume relief work as soon as the security situation allows.

Click for a PDF of the report

Exxon maintains PNG LNG restart timetable despite ramping up activity

by Carl Surran, seekingalpha.com
April 5, 2018

Exxon Mobil is sticking to its initial restart plan for its Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas plant in the second half of April, despite activity ramping up at the site, including the delivery of a cooling cargo and the imminent arrival of an unloaded project vessel at the facility.
Platts reports that the LNG carrier Kumul arrived at PNG LNG April 1, with the purpose of maintaining the temperature of the facility's tanks and loading infrastructure, and avoiding a lengthy re-cooling period once production restarts.
Also, the LNG tanker Papua is said to be heading for PNG LNG at close to full speed, possibly to be ready to load once an export cargo is available.
PNG LNG closed on Feb. 26 due to a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in the country.
Project participant Oil Search said earlier this week that its central processing facility, which also shut because of the earthquake and is integral to the operation of PNG LNG, has resumed operations.

PNG earthquake’s political aftershocks require careful handling

 by Paul Flanagan, eastasiaforum.org
April 5, 2018

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on 26 February 2018 killed over 100 people and left 270,000 in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.
There have been dozens of physical aftershocks.
But the most damaging aftershock may be the earthquake’s undermining of the ‘social licence’ of the affected areas’ PNG LNG project, which is responsible for 40 per cent of PNG’s exports.
The immediate disaster relief effort is proceeding slowly but surely.

 The Highlands Highway, a lifeline through PNG’s Highlands Region, has been cleared, although many important side roads remain blocked.
In the affected areas, health centres were badly damaged but 73 per cent have re-opened. Early damage estimates are at US$200 million (600 million kina). International cash contributions totalled some US$45 million by mid-March, and there has been further in-kind assistance such as military transport support from Australia.
A state of emergency in the area has been declared, and a new Restoration Authority has been created to guide reconstruction over the next four years.
The physical aftershocks have been significant: quakes measuring up to 6.7 in magnitude have killed more people and have kept them fearful of returning to sleep in their damaged homes or to tend their gardens.
The latter is especially important — subsistence agriculture dominates the area, supplemented by coffee or other cash crops and by the promise of royalties from resource projects.
The public’s growing concern is whether the earthquake demonstrates the ancestral spirits’ disapproval of the LNG project.
Most areas affected by the earthquake are very remote and have little contact with the modern world.
Traditional belief systems remain very strong and ancestors are ever present.
Local landowners were meant to receive most of the 4 per cent of royalties and development levies based on the wellhead value of resource production in these areas. But a pre-condition for these payments was that the actual landowners be identified. This has not happened in the project area, and no payments have been made even though the project has been exporting gas since May 2014.
Legal experts have serious doubts whether there can be any agreement on exactly who are the legitimate landowners.
Without such an agreement and with no payments to local landowners, there were already growing concerns about the project’s ‘social licence’ to operate.
The Hide gas plant was closed by landowner leaders in late 2016 and special police squads were mobilised to protect the site.
The 2018 earthquake occurred among an already volatile mix of weapons, tribal conflicts, growing disenchantment with the project due to a lack of cash benefits, and traditional belief system concerns about the project.
There is now local concern that the LNG project itself was the reason for the earthquake.
Although geological experts are clear that the earthquake resulted from natural movements, social media and local discussions are generally blaming ancestors or the drilling from the LNG project.
The extent of this disquiet, although ‘irrational’, has resulted in senior political leaders such as PNG’s Minister for Finance and its Vice-Minister for Petroleum and Energy calling for an inquiry into the reasons for the earthquake to confirm if it was natural.
PNG’s opposition leader has also called for all outstanding royalties to be paid before the project re-opens.
Following a request from Prime Minister O’Neill, Geoscience Australia has agreed to investigate the causes.
The immediate economic impacts from the earthquake are the estimated US$200 million damages bill, the closure of the LNG project for an estimated eight weeks and the effect on government revenues.
These economic impacts are bearable. The government has promised to spend US$150 million in repairs, but this is likely to be spent over several years and is only a very small proportion of the state budget.
Losing eight weeks of production at the LNG project is balanced out by the increase in oil prices in early 2018, so PNG’s overall export values in 2018 are still likely to exceed those in 2016 and 2017.
Revenue flows from the project are only 1 per cent of the government’s budget due to very generous depreciation and other tax concessions.
The real economic risks are if the earthquake marks a turning point in local support for the LNG project. This could be psychological, building on the continuing frustrations over the non-payment of royalties and development levies, and the willingness of the local Huli people to take direct action.
The worst case scenario is one that PNG has already experienced.
The loss of social licence for the Bougainville copper mine in 1989 started a decade-long civil war that led to thousands of deaths, undermined development prospects on the island for a decade, damaged PNG’s economy more broadly and quite directly led to the removal from office of prime ministers Paias Wingti and Julius Chan.
Following the earthquake, the PNG government and LNG-project partners will have to work even harder to maintain a social licence for the project.
The alternative would be catastrophic for Papua New Guinea.
When the Bougainville Copper mine closed in 1989, there were other major resource projects in the pipeline to ‘pick up the slack’.
This time around, even with LNG and other major mining projects in the offing, there are no projects as advanced or as large as the early 1990s resource projects of Kutubu Petroleum and the Porgera Gold Mine. History shows economic pressures lead to political pressures, and mishandling the ‘irrational’ elements of this earthquake would put Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s coalition government under great strain.

Paul Flanagan is Director of PNG Economics and an Associate at the Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University.

Two interesting landslides triggered by the Papua New Guinea earthquake

 by Dave Petley, blogs.agu.org
April 4, 2018

Two of the more interesting landslides from the Papua New Guinea earthquake
Slowly improved satellite imagery is becoming available showing the landslides triggered by the Papua New Guinea earthquake.
 This event seems to have been quite efficient at generating large landslides, some of which appear to be quite interesting.
I thought it would be useful to highlight two of these, although there are many more.
A very large avalanche type failure, with a displaced but intact block
On 20th March, Planet Labs was able to image beautifully a very interesting landslide located at -6.14, 142.91 :-

Planet Labs image of the large avalanche type failure from the Papua New Guinea earthquake.

This slide is about 3 km long and the track is over 500 m wide (the headscarp area is about 1 km wide).
This landslide is located southeast of Komo Station.
 The main part of the landslide appears to be a flow type failure, presumably consisting if a fragmented block from the hear scarp, with some debris entrainment along the track.
 It appears to me that there is another very large displaced block stalled in the headscarp area (note the raft of displaced but intact trees).
 The rear scarp if this is block is orientated roughly east – west, with considerably more displacement towards the east end.  It is likely that this block will progressively degrade over the tears ahead, although a more rapid failure cannot be eliminated.
I suspect that the watercourse downstream from this landslide is going to suffer a large input of sediment in the coming years.
A large, complex flow type failure
Further to the west is a very complex area of extensive landslides, in the area of -6.02, 142.62:-

Planet Labs image dated 31st March 2018 showing extensive landsliding induced by the Papua New Guinea earthquake.

This image appears to show very extensive landsliding around the drainage system.  In the centre of the image is a much more complex and interesting landslide, with dimensions of >2 km by >1 km.  Downstream from this slide there appears to be a very wide swathe of damage around the river, extending for up to about 4 km down to the main channel.
It is not clear to me as to whether this was a part of the landslide itself or erosion from an outbreak flood when a landslide dam breached.

Reference
Planet Team (2017). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://api.planet.com/

Papua New Guinea earthquake: UN pulls out aid workers from violence-hit region

by Eleanor Ainge Roy, theguardian.com
April 5, 2018

Relief efforts hampered by instability in parts of Hela province, an area struggling since February’s 7.5 magnitude quake

The UN has suspended relief efforts in areas of Papua New Guinea worst hit by February’s earthquake after violence and instability made it unsafe for its workers.

Families rest at a temporary shelter in Pimaga, Papua New Guinea, after powerful earthquakes. Photograph: THOMAS NYBO/UNICEF/HANDOUT/EPA

More than 150 people died when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the highlands region on 26 February, and 270,000 people are still in need of emergency aid – 125,000 of them children – according to the UN.
There are unconfirmed reports other non-government organisations have joined the UN in pulling out of Tari, in Hela province, as threats against aid staff and daily fighting between residents have made it too dangerous to continue.
Dr Luo Dapeng, speaking on behalf of the UN in Papua New Guinea, said: “The UN has temporarily relocated 12 UN non-essential relief workers from Tari to other locations due to the current security situation in the area, which is compromising our ability to implement relief activities.
“We aim to resume relief work as soon as the security situation allows.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New Zealand, which has so far committed NZ$3.5m ($2.5m) in aid funding as well as aircraft and personnel, said the outbreak of violence was adding extra pressure to relief efforts.
“This is a challenging recovery effort for a number of factors, including the remoteness of affected areas, and the recent intensification of civil unrest that has hampered access for some frontline relief efforts for security reasons,” the spokesperson said.
“A full picture of the damage caused is only beginning to emerge now. What is clear, though, is that the recovery will take some time.”
Road access to the affected regions of Hela, the Southern and Western Highlands remain unreliable or impossible, with all relief supplies having to be flown in by air, and then walked or driven to villages.
This week Orlena Scoville, head of Care Australia’s earthquake emergency team there, visited the villages of Huya, Walagau, Mougulu and Dodomona, and said aid delivery had “stagnated”.
Villages whose usual population was 300 have swollen to 2,000; with many of the new residents having little shelter or means of support, placing increased pressure on land and basic infrastructure.
According to the UN close to 20,000 are living in informal care centres, many of them no more than tarpaulin sheets pulled across wooden frames, while 143,127 have been deemed food insecure due to landslides wiping out their gardens and crops, especially the local staple of sago.

Areas affected by landslides are seen after a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake, in Hela, Papua New Guinea, in February. Photograph: Social Media/Reuters

Scoville said: “Food is definitely a major issue, there is not enough food, the villages I was in are mostly dependent on aid drop-offs. They have been saving food, because they don’t know where the next supply is coming from. It is definitely still an insecure situation.”
“The coping mechanisms people are using is they are restricting their food intake. People have had one or no meals a day; they are rationing out food as slowly as they can and not touching the food stocks they have because they don’t know when the next food supply is coming in.”
The remoteness of the region meant general health and well-being were further deteriorating due to a lack of medicines and supplies, and many people remaining in states of shock and grief, five weeks after the quake struck.
The Australian government has committed A$5m ($3.8m) in aid funding to the PNG government, which includes nine doctors who have treated more than 600 people at Mendi hospital in the Southern Highlands.
PNG’s prime minister, Peter O’Neill, said the long-term cost of the earthquake would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and short-term emergency relief efforts in Hela province alone were estimated at $60m.
Scoville said: “The biggest need going forward will be relocating these families back to a permanent area where they can re-establish their homes and gardens.
“Some people are looking at going back to their old areas, but a lot of people are going to have to resettle in new areas, so this is going to be a long process of recovery.”

Australia-bound asylum-seekers left mentally scarred by years of detention on Pacific islands, warns UN refugee official

reliefweb.int
April 4, 2018

A senior UN refugee agency official warned on Wednesday about the “shocking” effects of long-term detention on Australia-bound asylum-seekers who are being held on remote Pacific islands.

An asylum-seeker enters the ‘Regional Processing Centre’ on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. © UNHCR/Vlad Sokhin

Indrika Ratwatte said the situation in Nauru, as well and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, was as bad as he had seen in his 25-year career.
Both locations have been used to house more than 3,000 men, women and children from Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, since Australia implemented its offshore processing policy in 2013.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva after returning from Nauru last week, Mr. Ratwatte, who heads the Asia and Pacific bureau of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), described the “shocking” psychological and the mental toll on refugees and asylum seekers.
Children have been particularly affected, he said:
“I have seen a little girl for example who was 12 years old in a catatonic state who has not stepped out of her room in a month […] clinical psychiatrists and professionals have determined that around 80 per cent of the asylum-seekers and refugees in Nauru and Manus as well are suffering from post-traumatic stress and depression.
"This is per capita one of the highest mental health problems levels that have been noted.”
Despite the clear need to address the problem, the lack of psychiatric help and healthcare “has increased the sense of hopelessness and despair,” Mr. Ratwatte said.
“The point here is also that Australia has had a long tradition of supporting refugee and humanitarian programmes globally, but on this one, the offshore processing policy has had an extremely detrimental impact on refugees and asylum-seekers.”
He urged Australia to continue to support the authorities on Nauru once it hands over responsibility to the island for medical and psychiatric services.
There are currently around 2,000 detainees on the islands.
Around 40 children born in Nauru have seen “nothing but detention-like conditions,” Mr. Ratwatte said, and another 50 youngsters have spent more than half their lives there.
Under a deal agreed between Australia and the United States, some 1,000 detainees from Nauru will be repatriated to the US Around 180 have already left the island.
Welcoming the agreement, the UNHCR official said that this would still leave the same number of people on Nauru, and he urged the Australian Government to consider an offer from New Zealand to rehouse them.
“It is a very genuine offer and New Zealand has an excellent programme for refugee settlement,” Mr. Ratwatte said.