Marshall Islands Photo: D.McFadzien
Following a swearing in ceremony for her new Cabinet Tuesday, the first order of business for President Hilda Heine's new government is expected to be declaring not one, but two states of emergency (SoE).
Open SoE declaration will be for Kili Island, where "people are starving", according to one Cabinet minister; the other order to put focus on the capital atoll's ongoing power crisis.
These moves were in the discussion stage earlier this week prior to the swearing in of the new Cabinet Tuesday, with plans to formalise the state of emergencies for Kili and Majuro at the first Cabinet meetings of the new government later this week.
As a result of the previous local government administration bankrupting the Bikini Resettlement Trust Fund, there is no operations funding for the Kili-Bikini-Ejit local government that represents the nuclear test exiled people of Bikini Atoll.
This means no funding for Kili Island, home of hundreds of displaced Bikinians, who rely on deliveries of food and fuel for the power plant for their daily needs.
These regular deliveries, however, have dried up in the past six months with no funds available to the KBE Local Government to support the several hundred residents on the isolated island.
The Cabinet is going to declare a state of emergency so that it can free up funds that can be used to immediately dispatch food for the population and fuel so the power plant can resume operations on Kili, new Finance Minister David Paul said Wednesday.
New President Hilda Heine spoke at the Nitijela (parliament) chamber after being sworn in for her second term in office January 3. Photo: Hilary Hosia.
President Heine is expected to lead a delegation of Cabinet and other leaders - including Paul and new Minister of Culture and Internal Affairs, Jess Gasper Jr, who represents the KBE community in Nitijela - to Kili Friday to meet with the community and see the situation for herself.
"We need to stabilise the community," Minister Paul said of the situation at Kili Island where people have literally run out of food.
One person familiar with the dire financial condition of the KBE Local Government told the Marshall Islands Journal this week: "They don't even have money to fix an air conditioner."
A Journal reporter responded that this was similar to the situation on Nauru 20 years ago when Nauru's large trust fund was bankrupted, leading to a headline in the Journal: "From riches to rags."
To emphasize KBE's lack of resources, the person familiar with the situation responded: "We don't even have rags."
A second national government state of emergency declaration is also anticipated to focus on Majuro's ongoing power crisis, which saw extended and repeated power outages last week and weekend.
The capital cities operating on generators that range in age from 24 to 42 years and are constantly breaking down or in need of extended maintenance to keep them operational.
Last weekend, the two opposite ends of Majuro Atoll experienced a 30-hour power outage as power plant engineers worked to repair one engine critical to the supply of power to the public.