Urgent aid needed to fight ‘super’ El Nino, warns Oxfam

Droughts, erratic rains and frosts brought by a super-charged El Nino are severely impacting the Pacific, with Papua New Guinea worst hit, aid group Oxfam said in a report on Monday. Calling for an urgent up-scaling in relief to save lives, the charity said 4.7 million people faced hunger, poverty and disease in the Pacific region as a result of the weather pattern. “This is a crisis on a huge global scale,” the report, Early Action on Super-charged El Nino Vital to Save Lives, said. Oxfam said the result of the current strong El Nino would likely be 40-50 million people globally facing hunger, disease and water shortages in early 2016 as the slow onset crisis plays out.

The current El Nino is one of the strongest ever measured, which means there will be more extreme weather conditions that will threaten people’s food security, lives and livelihoods.

Oxfam

El Nino is the name given to a weather pattern associated with a sustained period of warming in the central and eastern tropical Pacific which can spark deadly and costly climate extremes. The worst-affected places include Papua New Guinea in the Asia-Pacific as well as Ethiopia and Malawi in Africa and Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras in Latin America. "Papua New Guinea has been severely affected, particularly in the Highlands, with widespread drought and frost affecting up to three million people and destroying crops and livestock,“ it said. "Drought has also affected Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tonga, damaging crops and water supplies.”

The warning bells are deafening. We must act now to save lives and prevent people falling further into poverty.

Oxfam Australia’s humanitarian manager Meg Quartermaine