By MADELEINE AREK
MORE than 20,000 people from three district in the country stand to benefit from a K23 million water supply project soon to be carried out by the PNG Waterboard.
Project director William Walo said under the European Union -funded programme, PNG waterboard will construct water supplies for the district towns of Maprik, Finschhafen and Kainantu to provide better water supply services to the people.
He said to maintain infrastructure of the project, water billing metres would be installed in homes with the users paying a minimal fee.
He said when the study team from Cardno/Agrisys carried out the feasibility study in 2006 to prepare an investment programme to support the district town water project, they found that existing infrastructure in these three towns were in a state of disrepair.
The team found the district towns sub sector had been neglected in terms of investment to upgrade and expand ageing systems and the on-going operation and maintenance of existing facilities.
“We want to make sure the project is sustainable having the rural population in mind,” Mr Walo said.
He said work on the Maprik project was projected to start in May.
He said a water source has been identified and tenders has been called from civil works contractors to duild a reservoir and water treatment facility.
“We will be conducting some studies to confirm the availability of ground water for Kainantu and Finschhafen,” Mr Walo said.
He said for Maprik, water would be sourced from a river, while for Kainantu and Finschhafen, the possibility of sourcing water from underground (bores) would be confirmed,” he said.
He said to start the programme, the Waterboard has set up a team of engineers and technical officers and will be recruiting a technical adviser to assist in carrying out the programme.
The role of the technical team was to undertake the necessary engineering studies .
and prepare detailed designs ad specifications for the three water supply projects.
“We will also call tenders, evaluate and award contracts in consultation with the EU and the Government,” Mr Walo said.