The administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is watching Palau\u2019s severe drought closely and is willing to lend a helping hand.<\/p>\n
Palau declared a state of emergency last month after the El Nino-induced droughts in the region worsened, Agence France Presse reported this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration stands ready to assist the people of Palau in any way it can as they experience worsening drought conditions,\u201d Blanco told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you know, Palau is the only sister island that has an honorary consul to the CNMI whom we work closely with,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
At the same time the National Weather Service has signal \u201cvery dry\u201d weather in the Mariana Islands and has recommended monitoring water supplies, according to an April 1 report.<\/p>\n
The Service said that although trade-wind showers have occurred and rainfall has been near normal since March 1, conditions remain very dry with computer models indicating below normal rainfall over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
The Service said water supplies need to be monitored very closely and water conservation is highly encouraged.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrying and yellowing of food crops and vegetation will become much worse and grass fires will increase,\u201d the Service said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater wells on Saipan could see an increase in salinity as the drought progresses,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n
According to the AFP report, Palau officials have warned that drought-stricken Palau could dry up completely this month, and have appealed for urgent aid from Japan and Taiwan, including shipments of water.<\/p>\n
The tiny country of about 18,000 people declared a state of emergency last month, the latest Pacific island nation to do so as one of the worst ever El Nino-induced droughts in the region worsens.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the current water level and usage rates, and assuming conditions persist unabated, a total water outage is likely to occur in the next two to three weeks,\u201d a National Emergency Committee report said.<\/p>\n
Access to tap water is already rationed to three hours a day or less in the capital Koror and schools are only open half days because they cannot give students enough to drink.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery morning we struggle to shower, clean up, and prepare for the day with the limited amount of water we have,\u201d resident Rolynda Jonathan told AFP.<\/p>\n
The Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia have also declared states of emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is watching Palau\u2019s severe drought closely and is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10777,10778,10779,319],"class_list":["post-224835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-afp","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-el-nino-induced","tag-palau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}