NMSA supports safety awareness

ISLAND communities in Papua New Guinea are vulnerable to small craft accidents and an increased awareness for a boat safety culture is being encouraged by these communities to support the newly
introduced Small Craft Act.
National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA) general manager and chief executive officer Chris Rupen said this recently while showing the authority’s support for the New Hanover forum with a presentation of K5,000 to the organisation on Sept 28.
“A lot of work is going to be done by provincial governments and NMSA is to provide the support to local authorities to ensure that the act gets as much exposure as it can before its implementation begins.”
Rupen expressed the authority’s support for small island communities and encouraged other island communities to assist NMSA carry out its mandate, and in particular, that of the implementation of the Small Craft Act.
New Hanover forum chairman Borone Isana was pleased to accept the support from the authority and invited the NMSA to promote a small craft safety exercise on the island of
New Hanover in New Ireland.
Isana said the funds would be used to finance the nullification of the Special Agricultural and Business Lease (SABL) on the island of new Hanover and to conduct a social mapping exercise to confirm land bounda­ries that would allow local­s to be aware of their land rights.
NMSA’s support for the fundraising event,  which Isana said “will go a long way to ensuring that the work of the forum is boosted to carry out awareness on issues involving the community”.