El Niño drought affects up to 8 million in Papua New Guinea, coalition calls it a ‘national crisis’

An influential coalition including churches, trade unions and business groups said the Pacific nation is in the midst of a "national crisis", but that there appears to be "no coordinated plan to protect vulnerable communities from the worsening impacts of El Niño". Residents and community leaders told the Guardian that rivers and creeks have dried up, family food gardens have shrivelled, and some schools and health facilities are closing early because they lack sufficient water to provide basic services.

The El Niño climate pattern is gaining strength in the tropical Pacific, with forecasts suggesting it will be the strongest ever recorded, with impacts worsened by global heating. Some parts of PNG have had less than a quarter of their usual rainfall since August.

Emilly Meren, humanitarian projects manager at CARE International in PNG, said families in rural highland areas were rationing food to one meal a day, and that food insecurity was leading to localised disputes between families. "For women and girls, they are expected to do more to support their families," she said, yet they were "the last to eat because they have to serve others first". She said women and girls had to travel three to four hours to source water and food, exposing them to a heightened risk of harassment. "We are hearing stories of transactional sex happening in the community," she said.

The PNG National Weather Service declared the onset of El Niño in June, but Kasis Inape, the service's assistant director, said much of the country was already in drought, with about 8 million people affected. Inape said PNG was one of the wettest places in the world, with rain fed by warm tropical waters, but the El Niño had seen those waters shift east "and we're starved of rain". "Because we're a rain-fed country, a lot of our people are subsistence farmers and they depend just on rainfall to survive and to feed themselves," he said. PNG's wet season runs between November and April; Inape said that while some short-term relief was forecast, there were concerns El Niño would shorten the season. "Just two months of rain is not enough to allow crops to grow and water levels to be comfortable," he said.

In Morobe province's Bulolo district, smaller rivers have dried up, leaving families without access to water for drinking, cooking and washing. Resident Theophil Zarack said many schools and health centres were operating for only half a day, with some clinics no longer accepting inpatients due to a lack of available water. Martha Zureno, a resident of Leklu village, said: “All our rivers have dried up, including the one behind my house. Now, my children and I have to walk for miles every afternoon to fetch water for cooking and drinking from the other side.” She said a hand-dug well was used only for washing, and that “all the crops in our gardens have dried up and died, and we cannot grow anything now.” Most local residents depend on panning for gold, she said, but without water “even that has become increasingly difficult”.

A destructive hailstorm in parts of Enga province earlier this month, not blamed directly on El Niño, buried sweet potatoes under ice, worsening the food shortage, according to George Iki, president of the Sambe Unity Development Association.

In Port Moresby, PNG Power has begun planned electricity blackouts after falling dam levels cut hydropower generation, and said disruptions could continue for up to 10 months. The company said it was working to manage dam releases to protect the city's water supply.

Peter Aitsi, a prominent PNG business figure and co-chair of the Community Coalition Against Corruption, said the government needed to carry out "proper assessments" of the unfolding impacts, particularly on rural communities. Last month the group called the drought a "national crisis", but Aitsi said urban centres had so far been mostly shielded, a situation that could change with electricity blackouts and a shortage of fresh food. The capital had been covered in a smoke haze in the past week from fires elsewhere on the island and in Indonesia that scientists say have been fuelled by El Niño, he said.

Prime Minister James Marape has directed provincial and district authorities to prepare for a prolonged dry season, saying his government was examining financial arrangements to support disaster responses. "Cabinet is looking at tailoring provisions of our financial instructions to make sure that districts and provinces are assisted to respond to disasters as they happen where appropriate," Marape said.