Koroba-Kopiago people need better road network

THE people of remote Koroba-Kopiago district in Hela need better road network to connect with the outside.
Thousands of people living in Kopiago and sharing borders with Western, East and West Sepik provinces still live like nomads because of no road network.
One of the candidates contesting the Koroba-Kopiago open seat, Akope Alfred Piawiya, said yesterday that if he was given the mandate, he would focus only on infrastructure developments like roads and bridges.
Piawiya said the district was getting money from oil and gas and at the same time from the Government over the years, yet people were living in jungles with no road connections and no government services.
He said many people died of curable diseases because the nearest service available in Kopiago station was three to four days’ walk.
He said that during the elections in the past, candidates and sitting MPs flew in by chopper to campaign and promised people about building roads, providing basic services but when they won, they failed to keep their promise.
“When I win, I will connect all the villages in the thick jungle with road and bring them out to the outside world,” he said.
Piawiya said that Kopiago had potential for economic benefits like agriculture, tourism, timber, fisheries, cattle and farming.
“We are not developing these resources because of no road network,” he said.
He said that he would also build new infrastructure like aid posts, schools, teachers’ houses, and others non-existent in the area.
He said that he would ensure that public servants stayed back in the district and served the people.