| Business |
Situm ponders the
future
By PETER KORUGL
On Saturday of the Easter weekend I
was invited to visit Situm, five kilometers outside Lae, Morobe
province.
The driver Timothy arrived at 9.30am to pick me and my son
Christopher for the drive to Situm.
We traveled through Bumayong along a sealed road, crossed the
raging Busu River bridge and ascended into Naweb district. The
road suddenly became bumpy as we drove past the junction and
headed east.
We drove past Poahom and went further, passing food gardens,
vanilla gardens, mustard plots, betelnut and homes, nearly ending
up in one of the creeks along the way. I asked Timothy to take an
abandoned section of the road because the bridge had collapsed.
We arrived at Situm river, where there was a market. Timothy left
us there and returned to Lae. We looked around and found Peter, a
mate of mine who lived there.
He wanted the honors of being our host for the day.
"The house is up there," Peter pointed towards the mountains
towards the north.
We found ourselves following the Busu River upwards. As we walked
along, Peter told me that not so long ago, there was a bridge
across this river but it has disappeared.
The Busu River runs over a large gravel filled land about a
kilometer long from both sides. The water spreads across this land
that it was easy for people and vehicles to go over to the Situm
station and from there to Lae.
I was told that the river used to run through a narrow gully and
was easy for the bridge to be built.
Over the years, the land has seen drastic change. Sand, gravel and
other debris washed downstream have filled up from the bridge,
growing slowly over the years to bury it and fill up the small
gully into what it was today - a valley.
Villagers blame themselves and logging companies for the silt pile
up, saying the river was moving freely upstream.
They said they chopped down all the trees along the river banks to
make gardens but this has caused massive erosion of the soil which
was washed downhill.
They also said logging of trees up stream by a timber company also
denuded the land, causing soil erosion.
The villagers there are friendly and being committed Christians,
they were hosting the annual Easter Camp.
Christians from the Tamu, Friel, Tekeleng, Tale, Tengteng and
Kaiser Parishes gathered at the Tama village for Easter
activities.
"We have vanilla. We have coffee," Tups Waho, a leader in the
village was saying as we sat under a shade tree.
Situm alone brought in K1 million in export earnings at one point
in time when the price for the spice was very, very good.
Everyone was telling me about the time during the vanilla boom.
People were earning up to K50, 000 from each harvest, they said.
"It was crazy, there was so much money in the village everyone
went on a spending spree," Tups said.
"You see that 15-seater bus. It was bought at the height of the
vanilla boom. It has not left the village for a long while now,"
his brother Philip added.
Today a walk through the area told a sad tale of this "miracle"
crop. Hundreds of farmers just abandoned their gardens when the
prices dropped. Today some of those vanilla gardens have been
cleared for food gardens.
"We can not move the coffee from the mountain because there are no
roads. Buyers go up there and buy the coffee at very little prices
and we can't complain," he said.
"Now the government is trying to create a taro industry in PNG and
they want to start with us. How can we quickly jump to taro when
we have not fully developed the coffee and spice industry here,"
Tups said.
Peter took me to his house. We walked through rows and rows of
shade trees. I saw that each supported vanilla plants that were
dying off slowly. Nature was slowly reclaiming the land.
He dug up two huge yams, filled a whole bag with snake beans and
cut sugarcane for Christopher and I.
We said goodbye and began our trip back to Lae. As we drove back
to the city I thought, Situm, so close to Lae and yet so
neglected.
What chance of development do the remote areas have?
 
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