Rains bring respite to drought hit Vanuatu

Disaster Authorities in Vanuatu say a spell of wet weather has provided a respite for drought stricken communities, with rainfall heavy enough in some places to cause minor flooding.

However the operations manager of the National Disaster Management Office says despite receiving positive reports from some of the areas most affected by months of drought his office remains vigilant and will be monitoring the situation as the rains cease.

Peter Korisa says he feels that some communities will have benefited more than others from the short period of heavy rain.

"Yeah of course I mean, it depends very much on the availability of the water collection. We have some islands where if they have things like tanks they can collect water. I am not sure but we are still on our alert and we are still monitoring the situation."

Mr Korisa says the most noticeable improvement has been to food crops with most of the vegetation in the country already looking greener after the wet weather.