Bumbu residents fear floods

 MORE than 200 displaced people live in fear of floods and associated diseases at their camp on the banks of the swollen Bumbu River.

It is next to the bridge in Lae, Morobe.

Though unconfirmed, appeals committee chairman Pr Plankus Miamil said a women and child had already been affected by the worsening conditions at the camp.

A visit last weekend revealed that the living condition at the camp had been made worse by the rain, mud and debris.

The families are using nearby bushes as toilets and forced to drink water from holes on the banks of the river. 

More than 40 families, mostly highlanders, used to live at 15 Block in Nawaeb but were forced to leave. 

They now live in tents donated by the Red Cross last August.

Miamil said they had been waiting for government authorities for eight months to help them re-settle somewhere else.

Bumbu is their third camping site since they were displaced from 15 Block following a murder case that led to an ethnic clash between 

the Sepiks and Highlanders. 

“The situation here is really bad,” Miamil said. 

He said some officials from Lae MP Loujaya Toni’s office visited them last November last year and assured them of a follow-up visit but they had not been back since.

Miamel said he was scheduled to meet provincial Governor Kelly Naru on Wednesday this week and was hopeful that something positive would transpire.