PNG district MP calls for prioritisation of road repairs

Transcript

A Papua New Guinea MP in Chimbu province is calling on the national government to prioritise reconnecting roads and repairing telecommunications brought down by severe flooding and landslides across the country.

The MP for the badly impacted Sinasina Yomgomugl district in Chimbu province says local authorities are doing their best to provide relief to affected communities but their resources are limited.

Kerenge Kua spoke with Koroi Hawkins

KERENGE KUA: The volume of rain that they have been receiving has been much bigger than expected and that combined with the very dry conditions in the dry season preceding that probably set up the stage for a lot of land slips to happen and a lot of flooding to happen in various areas and that is disconnecting roads and bridges and affecting transportation and communication and so yes we are having quite a lot of issues here. Last Friday night there was another landslide in my district and it swept away six people. But three people were dug out alive and the other three had died and I attended the wake yesterday the funeral yesterday and I have just come back and today I am going to another part of the district where a big massive landslide about one kilometre you know started up in the high mountains and swept down the slopes and into the Chimbu river has disconnected the road going up to Mount Wilhelm which is our highest mountain in the country and swept away about 31 homes. But people somehow even though the landslip happened at about 10, 11 o clock at night were able to tell that there was something happening from the groundswell and you know cracks and all this and they evacuated to higher ground before the landslip swept down the mountain and demolished about 31 homes. And so today, this morning I am also delivering some relief there some plates and cups and some blankets and some food and things like that I will be delivering it today to them.

KOROI HAWKINS: Are you getting enough help to assist your constituents or is the national government coming in to assist in anyway yet or humanitarian organisations?

KK: Well at the moment we are relying on our own scant resources to clear the roads and bring supplies, relief supplies and things like that. The national government through the provincial government are inspecting only the major damages. They are leaving the smaller damages and land slips to us in the districts but the bigger ones the national government has sent people from the provincial government to come and have a look at it and it will take a while. It will take a while before the national government's relief supplies actually reach the people. bureaucracy always takes a while as we all know. But we are here on the ground so we are just going to provide, just a stop gap relief.