Fijian authorities have warned of possible outbreaks of communicable diseases at evacuation centres filled with people fleeing flooded towns.
Severe weather pounded Fiji at the weekend, causing flash floods that left five people dead and three missing, forced thousands to evacuate their homes and cut off power and water. A state of natural disaster was declared for most of Fiji's Western Division.
More than 11,000 people in the western division are at 117 evacuation centres in the Western Division.
Divisional health inspector Dip Chand told the Fiji Times medical teams had been deployed to the evacuation centres amid fears of possible outbreaks of disease.
He said strategies had been put in place to prevent or contain diseases.
"There should be no grog-drinking, smoking or merrymaking allowed at these centres,'' he told the Fiji Times. ''People have to respect that there are elderly, women and children at these centres and there needs to be policies in place to address this.''
