Candidate unveils plans for Wewak

 A SENIOR Wewak citizen has plans to make vital physical changes to the East Sepik capital if he succeeds in his bid to win the mayor’s seat in the LLG elections.

Peter Michael Waliawi, a well-known figure in Wewak, has plans to turn the beautiful seaside town into an attraction for visitors and tourists.

Before leaving Port Moresby for Wewak yesterday, he said there were some projects that needed immediate attention, including the Mongniol dump.

“That has to be re-located to some other place,” Waliawi said, adding that he would also continue the work on the storm-water project as well as the new stadium that was opened in September 2010.

“In fact, the original storm-water and stadium projects were proposed by me in 1980, and submitted to John Momis who was the Minister for Provincial Affairs at the time.”

Waliawi also plans to make Wewak a sister-town of Wangaratta, a town in north eastern Victoria, Australia. 

“I did my secondary schooling at Wangaratta from 1961-1966 and have already written to one of my schoolmates in Melbourne to get the ball rolling.”   

Waliawi has been a resident of the picturesque town since 1947 and has worked with the provincial government in the 1970s and 1980s.

If he succeeds, he also plans to work closely with other leaders in the district to encourage youths and public servants to participate in sports.

Waliawi has been an important figure in sports in the 1980s, particularly in Australian Rules football.

“I owned, managed, coached and played for the Wirui Hawks rules football club. I ran the club for 13 years and the bulk of my players were young unemployed youths from surrounding settlements,” he said.