KEY POINTS:
Defence Minister Phil Goff yesterday offered the Solomon Islands more disaster relief if needed, but said from Honiara he was pleased with New Zealand's aid response.
New Zealand already had a 44-strong Defence Force contingent in the Solomons as part of a multinational assistance mission when an 8.1
magnitude earthquake struck on Monday last week, followed by tsunami waves of up to 5m which wiped out many villages and killed 37 people, including Wellington prison guard Teangauki Toma.
The minister flew to the Solomons' capital on Saturday in an Air Force C130 Hercules - the second of two relief flights from New Zealand, with a seven-member Defence Force freight-loading team.
Mr Goff, on a day's visit to the island, spent the time meeting relief leaders as the team loaded mosquito nets, tarpaulins and blankets into the Hercules for delivery to a disaster centre at Munda in the outlying New Georgia islands to help an estimated 5000 people whose homes were sucked out to sea.
But he took some time out from meetings to help the team load a patrol boat with bottled water and other supplies as part of a international relief effort.
The effort was jointly coordinated by the United Nations and the Solomon Islands Government, and assisted by Australia, France and Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
Mr Goff told the Herald before flying back that New Zealand had a strong presence in the Solomon Islands, with four of its nationals included in a nine-member International Red Cross team.
Two members of New Zealand Aid were based there full-time and a Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management planner had been called over for the relief effort.
That was in addition to a $500,000 emergency grant announced by Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
"So New Zealanders are very visible," Mr Goff said.
"The efforts we are making are paying dividends and are deeply appreciated by all those we are working with."
But the minister said he had indicated to Solomon Islands National Disaster Council chair Fred Fakarii that New Zealand would consider further requests for specialist assistance if needed.
That may include help with psycho-social counselling for children and other traumatised islanders, thousands of whom fled to the nearest hills and who are too frightened to return to what may be left of their villages.
"In some areas of the coastline every village was wiped out - people not only lost their lives but the houses went and all of their clothing, their household possessions, their gardening instruments, their fishing boats - some of these areas have just lost everything," Mr Goff said.
"They've had the aftershocks and people are just terrified that the tsunami will come back so part of the challenge will be to persuade people to come down from the hills and re-establish themselves as fishing people and gardeners on the coast."
Sanitation and health needs too were a challenge requiring a major effort to prevent the outbreak of diseases such as malaria and dysentery.
