Solomons Islands Tsunami 2007

One year after the tsunami, the Solomon Islands is rebuilding On the morning of 2 April 2007 an underwater earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck the coast of Gizo, 350 kilometres north-west of the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara. The earthquake and tsunami left more than 50 people dead and around 9,000 homeless. Despite the isolation of many of those affected, local and international Red Cross workers were first on the scene, distributing tarpaulins and bed sheets, hurricane lamps and water containers, and cooking equipment. Red Cross helped almost 2,000 families in those earliest weeks. After the emergency phase, focus has shifted to repairing houses and improving access to clean water and sanitation. Red Cross has come up with a unique plan that has seen tools and nails given to almost 1,300 families whose houses were damaged or destroyed. Local solutions to local problems When tsunami/earthquakes strike they will often damage houses to different degrees and the situation in the Solomon Islands was no different. Red Cross needed to come up with a way to make sure people whose houses were harder hit had access to more funding to rebuild while, at the same time, ensuring those whose houses had lesser damage were assisted as well. So a system was devised to assess damaged houses and prioritise repairs as well as determine the additional help households required to rebuild. While we began this assessment process on only two islands, the Solomon Islands government asked us to extend it to the entire disaster affected area. Information collected by Red Cross is also being used by other agencies to help with ongoing shelter rehabilitation work. Keeping communities involved After the assessments were carried out, Red Cross worked with local community members to determine what tools were required, and then distributed tool kits and nails accordingly. Each community owns the tools, are responsible for their upkeep and for making sure that timber milling activities are undertaken responsibly.

Many houses were severely damaged leaving around 9,000 people homeless. Red Cross worked with local community members to devise a system to assess damage and prioritise repairs. After the emergency phase, focus has shifted to repairing houses and improving access to clean water and sanitation.