Papua New Guinea’s remote communities have limited access to clean water and healthcare. We have been partnering with the people of PNG and the New Zealand Aid Programme since 1974.
Only 40 per cent of people in PNG have access to clean drinking water and remote communities are vulnerable to natural disasters that further threaten their water supply and leave them unable to access healthcare. The massive drought associated with the 2015/16 El Nino weather pattern had a major impact on water supply in many parts of the country. Without water, school attendance drops, maternal health is negatively affected, and disease can quickly spread..
There is also a tuberculosis epidemic in PNG. Rates of the disease are the highest in the Pacific, with an alarming increase in the drug resistant strain.
