Cook Islands outer islands may not see rain for months

It could be weeks if not months before drought-affected parts of the Cook Islands see any significant rainfall.

An emergency shipment of water was deployed to the northern atoll of Tongareva, or Penrhyn, this week, where water supplies have reached critical levels.

The director of the Cook Islands Metservice, Arona Ngari, said a La Niña has brought dry conditions and above-normal temperatures to many islands.

"It does not look promising for the northern Cooks, and especially the eastern part of the northern Cooks in which Penrhyn is situated.

"So they normally get about 1600mm of rainrall per annum they seem to have well before 50 percent of that, so you are looking at about three to six months maybe waiting to until we ..., " he said,

Arona Ngari said while there are also water restrictions on Rarotonga, the situation on the main island isn't as dire as some of the Pa Enua.