By FRANK RAIRAI
SIX villages at the foot of the Atzera Range, Leron plains in the Morobe province were under water yesterday.
The Wawin National High School, Wawin DPI station and the Bismarck Farm of the Wampar LLG of Huon district, Morobe province, were also damaged.
And the days ahead look bleak.
More than 1,000 people including those in school will starve over the next few days due to a flooded creek that destroyed food gardens, cash crops, cattle ranges and washed away two kilometres of the road link onto the Highlands Highway.
Heavy rain caused the Udip creek to flood its banks and overflow into the Bampumrom, Kay Tii, Paiyapong, Tapiok Compound, Three-Mile and Six-Mile where houses, food gardens, cash crops and cattle farms were under water.
The flood dug deep ditches in the middle of the road, making it inaccessible to trucks and two-wheel drive vehicles, and severed links to the DPI station and the National High School.
The creek was diverted towards the main Wawin River by a D7 bulldozer belonging to the PNG Defence Force Engineering Battalion in 2005 but it changed its course yesterday and flooded the villages and government institutions.
Huon district officers assessing the flood predicted that there would be imminent starvation in the next few days.
They noted that sand, mud and debris would destroy the gardens.
Huon district administrator Aaron Ambang also said that the National High School will also run out of rations if the rains continued.
“Students and teachers will suffer over the next few days if this weather continues because the road will be hardly accessible.”
He said this also applied to the six affected villages,” Mr Ambang said.
Reports gathered by this paper showed that more than 500 students for the National High school, and many more villagers behind the Fuwantap mountains and the six affected villages will be severely affected by the shortage of food and water.