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Pukapuka island was cut off from the world for four days due to no electricity and communication, but now has restored power thanks to a barge arrival despite challenges from rough weather.
The MV Taunga Nui barge is undergoing a five-year class survey in Whangārei, Aotearoa New Zealand and is scheduled to return to Rarotonga towards the end of this month.
An emergency shipment of water is being sent to the northern Cook Island of Tongareva, where the drought situation is described as desperate.
Tongareva in the northern Cook Islands. There has been no significant rain for six months.
Photo: RNZI / Mary Baines
Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown said the drought-stricken Tongareva - also known as Penrhyn - had reached dire straits. There has not been any significant rain on Tongareva for the last six months, and no rain in sight for several months ahead, Brown said in a statement. The situation is such that private and community tanks with any water at all, are sitting at approximately 10 percent full; others are dry. The situation in Tongareva represents the very real effects of climate change.