FOR many years The National has urged the development of water transport in Papua New Guinea. Both the use of the country’s extensive river systems and the exploitation of the vast coastline have been neglected by previous governments.
We’re therefore pleased to see the first co-ordinated approach to the subject since independence. This initiative goes far beyond simply increasing the availability of coastal and river shipping.
It covers the rehabilitation and maintenance of some 40 river and coastal jetties, the purchase of maritime equipment and a pleasing amount to assist the National Maritime Safety Authority to operate effectively.
This project will be the first major national project to tap the potential of this means of transport; the initiative involves the Asian Development Bank, the PNG National Government and Canadian private enterprise company Cardno Acil.
The project sends a clear signal to the people of our coastal and riverine provinces that the Government is serious about improving their living standards. For decades, water transport has failed to attract this kind of development.
What initiatives have been undertaken have been ad hoc reactions to demonstrate needs on the part of the Government and an effort to fill in the huge gaps in the sea transport network on the part of several private shipping companies.
Long time residents will recall the years when coastal plantations and settlements were “on the map” of a Government coastal fleet augmented by the coastal shipping services of large retail and plantation companies and some individual private boat owners.
Vessels collected copra from plantations in the islands region, for example, and brought back necessary supplies from commercial centres. The same pattern applied in most PNG coastal provinces.
It was a service that met the needs of the large plantations that were common in those days as well as serving many coastal communities and villages.
But then came the sale of the Government vessels and the decline of the overseas-owned small ships fleets. The result was the isolation of many villages and small communities that had formerly relied upon the regular visits of those vessels.
The new initiative plans to address, among other areas, three water transport routes in the New Guinea islands region, one that will link Huon Gulf and the Oro province and another that will be developed in the Western province.
The total package will be worth almost K100 million, of which our National Government will contribute K14 million.
The ADB country representative who witnessed the project signing ceremony commented that many rural areas lack an economic system for the movement of goods and people. That is why the on-going exploitation of our waterways and coastline is vital.
For this excellent initiative must not stop there. We hope to see an on-going commitment by the National Government so that water transport at a new and vastly expanded level becomes another recurring budget item.
This project should signal the start of a whole new approach to maritime transport in PNG. We need to put the past behind us and move rapidly to carry out this initiative and plan for others.
There have been previous attempts, for example, to establish regular boat services on the Sepik. These initiatives began well but mismanagement and political interference played a role in their demise, and the negative result has since been borne in silence by the people.
Water transport, whether we think in terms of the movement of people or cargo, should be one of this country’s growth areas. Given the huge and escalating costs of moving both cargo and people by air and the unsatisfactory airline services to coastal airports throughout PNG, water transport is becoming ever more vital.
The initiative to build this nation through exploiting our agricultural wealth requires a smoothly operating maritime transport service. Linking our coastal and riverine communities to the outside world will deliver produce to agents or markets; in turn, that will help reduce the incidence of poverty in rural and remote PNG.
We commend the National Government for this initiative and welcome the involvement of the ADB and Cardno Acil. We applaud these potentially positive developments in a badly neglected sector of our transport system.