Call to change Kerowagi

THE small township of Kerowagi in Chimbu is currently experiencing what some urban planners would call a misguided urban planning backlash.
Illegal occupancy of state land is rife in Kerowagi town.
People who do not hold proper land titles are putting up buildings everywhere.
As illegal buildings of all shapes and dimensions mushroom all over Kerowagi, one can literally jump from one rooftop to another in this overcrowded town where its occupiers seem to have one main objective in life: they want to move their market tables very close to the roadside because that is where the money is.
The small township is being inundated by a horrendous volume of betel nut spittle generated by the populous Kerowagi people themselves.
The Kerowagi District Development Authority definitely needs a dump truck to remove the ever increasing and ever rotting pile of rubbish near the marketplace and the bus stops.
I am appealing to all the Kerowagi elites (wherever in the world you may be) to make a very significant contribution now.
The reconstruction and rebuilding of our beloved Kerowagi town must begin with us.
We do not necessarily have to start the reconstruction and rebuilding process with a thousand kina.
We can start the rebuilding process with sweat and tears.
Someone must donate a dump truck, another a spade. And someone else must donate a wheelbarrow. We must rebuild our town ourselves.
We have been waiting…and waiting…and waiting for the government for too long.
The government does not live here.
A very senior statesman and tribal leader used to sweep the streets in Kerowagi town with his bare hands.
As an elected representative in the then House of Assembly in the 1960s, the late Wena Willie played a very significant role in the establishment of Kerowagi town.
When old age finally caught up with him in the 1990s, Willie’s love for Kerowagi grew and grew.
Walking into Kerowagi town from his Kombuglkande Village across the Tem Creek, Willie would clean the streets using his own resources.
The construction of a new district office building is currently underway in the heart of Kerowagi town.
This is perhaps a significant government intervention after 15 years of neglect.

PAUL WAUGLA WII
KEROWAGI, SIMBU