Volcanic Ashfall Dry Rations Already on Tanna Ready for Distribution
The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) has ensured that dry rations for people affected by volcanic ash reaches Tanna in good time. The dry ration for Tanna ashfall response reached the island on February 22, 2024.
There are 20,335 dry rations in the form of rice bags, cartons of tinned tuna, breakfast biscuit crackers cartons and cartons of water that are still in the warehouse on Tanna.
Each household would get 2 bags of 18kg rice, 2 buckets of cracker biscuits, 1 carton of tinned tuna and 2 cartons of water.
The two Area Councils affected are East Tanna and South East Tanna that have 2,905 households and a population of 11,900 people.
Initially on December 6 the National Disaster Committee (NDC) approved a response plan for the Tanna volcanic ashfall, based on TAFEA Provincial report and recommendations of the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC).
On December 15 the Council of Ministers endorsed the Response Plan and budget, which was 94 million Vatu, to cover the entire operation, which includes procurement of dry rations and logistical and operational costs.
In January 2024 a high value procurement was submitted to the Central Tenders Board (CTB) for the purchase of dry rations.
The CTB decision on January 25 made recommendations to the Council of Ministers (COM), part of which financially restricted the response operation from being fully implemented as planned.
COM later met and approved the high value contract for the dry rations and the CTB recommendations that included reallocation of funds for a second push, then made a 5th decision on an allocated budget of 9 million vatu for logistical arrangements.
NDMO then advised that COM decisions 3 and 4, as recommended by the CTB and decision 5 would hinder the response operations and sought advice from the Office of the Attorney General on the CTB decision of January 2024.
The Office of the Attorney General advised that the CTB had acted beyond its mandate.
Early this month (March 2024) the CTB Secretariat advised that it has revised and removed its decision that financially restricted the response operation.
The first movement of rations from Port Vila to Tanna into the warehouse at Lenakel, had consumed around 6 million Vatu of the 9 million Vatu logistics budget in shipping, handling and associated costs, but with limited operational funding, the distribution could not be completed to the affected Area Councils’ distribution sites.
On Thursday this week, March 14, 2024, the Council of Ministers approved an increase to the 9 million vatu logistics budget, which will enable the response operations process to resume and be completed with distributions to affected Area Councils