PNG Covid outbreak: Delta strain threat as villages rely on Daru due to Torres Strait lockdown

Loose pigs and laundry detergent are all that stand between these tiny villages, starvation and a Delta-ravaged city – and the threat to Australia is very real.

VILLAGERS just kilometres from Australian territory are bracing for a potential Delta-strain outbreak as diminishing food supplies force them into a Covid-ravaged Papua New Guinean city.

The sad reality for tiny treaty villages like Buzi and Berr is all it takes is a loose pig to destroy an entire crop of produce from the communal garden.

Add to that the loss of trade of woven baskets, hand-carved trinkets and the like to the Torres Strait and villagers are left destitute.

There is no intensive farming, they cannot produce rice, oil or other essential goods, and they have been banned from raising chickens since all poultry was slaughtered in response to a disease outbreak decades ago.

It means residents of Buzi and Berr – both closer than 10km to Boigu in the Torres Strait, which is part of Queensland – and other villages like Bula, Jarai, Taisi and Siga are left only with what they can catch from the ocean to feed their families.

DONATE TO GET ESSENTIAL ITEMS TO PNG TREATY VILLAGES

Thursday Island woman Sandie Edwards has spearheaded a campaign to get rice, sugar, flour, cooking oil and detergent to 1074 people living in the two struggling border villages of Buzi and Berr.

Donations have allowed one shipment to be made so far with goods picked up from stores more than 100km away in the city of Daru and distributed between 157 family heads.

Daru is now being pummelled by a Delta outbreak and its hospital has been forced to wind back operations and offer care to only the most critical patients.

It means whoever picks up the next shipment – which still requires about $1600 in donations to be worthwhile – risks contracting and transmitting the disease to villagers.

Unfortunately for those small communities, Australia has halted deliveries from the Torres Strait.

Ms Edwards said villagers were faced with a choice between starving and risking a coronavirus outbreak, which was no choice at all.

“These guys are desperate. They depend on their market garden but if there’s a drought or the pigs get out and eat the garden, which is what has happened, they lose it,” she said.

“The other issue is that they use the soap suds from their laundry detergent to wash aphids off the crops, so it serves a dual purpose.

“They haven’t had detergent so the aphids are destroying the crops.”

Ms Edwards could not understand why shipments from the Torres Strait stores in Saibai or Boigu could not simply be dropped on the beach, with no physical contact made with locals.

She believed Australia’s borders would be at threat if the current situation continued.

“It’s going to be very desperate. If you were trying to get a family member help, you probably wouldn’t give a damn about crossing the border if you could get past the army or navy boats,” she said.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokeswoman confirmed the Daru Hospital had “scaled back” operations to focus resources on a spike in Covid-19 cases.

She said DFAT had no intention of easing the border shutdown it began enforcing in March last year.

“A PNG Government clinical surge team from Port Moresby is currently being assembled to deploy to Daru,” she said.

“The Australian High Commission is monitoring the situation with other partners and has offered assistance and stands ready to assist.

“The Madabuan Health Clinic remains fully operational and continues to service the needs of PNG treaty village inhabitants.

“Australian Traditional Inhabitants of the Torres Strait have made clear to the government in formal consultations that they oppose Australian Torres Strait Islands being used as supply bases for PNG in light of ongoing Covid risks.”

Donations towards the treaty village essentials packages can be made here.

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Originally published as PNG Covid outbreak: Delta strain threat as villages rely on Daru due to Torres Strait lockdown