School’s bridge a life for Alkena villagers

 By ELIAS LARI

COMMUNITY leaders from Alkena in the Lower Kagul area of Tambul in Western Highlands are grateful to Tambul High School administrators and headmaster James Pini for helping to build and maintain the Kagul bridge at Telma.

Community leaders Oniea Kare and Francis Pulipe from the Kepaka tribe said  people had suffered for 15 years without the bridge. 

They said people had been risking their lives crossing the swift Kagul River.

Kare and Pulipe said many tribes, government institutions, schools and health centres and Tambul High School were on the other side of the river.

They said under the good management of Pini, there were changes taking place in the school and now the community was benefiting.

“We want to thank James Pini, his teachers and the staff for making a wise decision to rebuild and maintain the bridge,” Kare said.

“This is our lifetime benefit because we have been facing hard times to cross the river with loads and then walk for more than three kilometres.”

Kare and Pulipe also thanked the Western Highlands provincial education board (PEB) and Governor Pais Wingti for posting Pini to Tambul.

Contractor and owner of Ako Transport and Logistic Supplies John Was also said he was confident the bridge would last.

He said he used his equipment and resources to help erect the partly sinking bridge.

More than 20,000 people use the bridge.  The Kagul Bridge linking Telma, Alkena and Mt Hagen collapsed 15 years ago.