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SPC provides water tests to PNG to help fight cholera outbreak 

Friday, 08 January 2010  

Friday 08 January 2010, SPC Headquarters (Noumea, 

New Caledonia) - Today, the Port Moresby office of the Secretariat of the Pacific 
Community (SPC) will provide 2220 water quality testing tablets and related 
supplies to Mr Enoch Posanai, Executive Manager of Public Health at the Papua 
New Guinea (PNG) National Department of Health, to help 
fight the cholera outbreak.  

These supplies will enable the National Department of Health to carry out more than 
1700 water chlorination level tests and 500 water pH tests.  

Contaminated water and food are the main routes of transmission of cholera, which 
continues to spread in PNG. National response teams have been doing water quality 
testing in the outbreak zones of the affected provinces since the outbreak started last 
year. These tests have assisted with the overall control efforts so far.  

The supplies being donated by SPC are meant to ensure that chlorinated water is safe 
to use. In PNG, this means that the tests can only be used in urban and peri-urban 
areas, where people are using chlorinated town water supplies. In rural areas, people 
use unchlorinated water.  

As well as being a key tool in the government response to the ongoing cholera 
outbreak, water testing can provide valuable information for planning future water 
supply improvements in the country.  

The donated testing supplies were requested by the PNG National Department of 
Health through the National Cholera Task Force. SPC procured them with support 
from the Australian and New Zealand government agencies for international 
development (AusAID and NZAID).  

For more information, please contact: Dr James Wangi, Pandemic Influenza 
Preparedness Specialist at SPC based in Port Moresby - email:  
jamesw@webmail.spc.int, tel.: (675) 3259984.  

Last Updated ( Friday, 08 January 2010 )