Centres need proper planning
THERE appears to be no planning at all these days when it comes to establishing or extending new urban development, especially on the outskirts of Port Moresby.
It is becoming a mess.
Need we remind you about the daily bumper-to-bumper traffic jams caused by dirty overloaded vehicles spewing deadly carbon monoxide?
Port Moresby has more cars and less well-planned roads to cater for its needs now and into the next 40 years.
We need to have forethought to plan for our future needs.
Let’s look down memory lane and look at how orderly and neat Port Moresby and environs were for example; the Papua New Guinea Defence Force Taurama Barracks and the Goldie River one on the banks of the river with the same name along the Hiritano Highway in the past.
They were set up in a beautiful and orderly way.
Port Moresby was planned before we achieved political independence from Australia.
There was a department that planned for any growth in the township.
The planning department working closely with Lands and Physical Planning and Works Department would draw up the city into zones for residential, light industrial, business, recreational and even reserved land.
Developers had to adhere strictly to zones.
Applications to rezone a certain area into another zone took a lengthy process and much justification.
Mostly such applications would be rejected out of hand.
In yesteryears, attached to the above was the Port Moresby town advisory council working in close liaison with the administration discussing issues such as town beautification programmes and problems stemming from parking areas, public toilet facilities and street names and load
ing zones and film censorship board, for example.
The council discussed such agenda items and recommended to appropriate government and private bodies for action.
The colonial administration had been criticised for its crowded Konedobu headquarters office complex for the simple reason that it wasn’t planned at all in the beginning.
As the township grew, the additional suburbs of Boroko (there was already Konedobu) were well planned by architects and erected in particular portions or areas designated for example:
- RESIDENTIAL area – for the building of houses and flats and apartment and others;
- RECREATION area – for the erection of parks and gardens and sporting ovals and courts; and
- INDUSTRIAL zone – this is where commerce and trade business companies set up offices and factories.
Today, Port Moresby is so cramped there is a rush to set up new businesses in the accommodation sector: hotels, motels, guest houses, lodges, inns are springing up all over Port Moresby and the folks from our rural areas are pouring in every week to take in their share of life in the big city, but with nothing to compare with the easy and healthy lifestyle they had left to migrate into Port Moresby.
They have to eat to survive.
They need money badly so they venture into small businesses such as tucker boxes and trade stores.
Most are literally street vending.
With this, unplanned development comes more overcrowding and the chances of sharing goods and services within our urban and rural areas of our country grows slimmer, more so in Port Moresby.
Remember, Port Moresby was planned for a small sub-urban town of 40,000 people.
Today, that number has swelled and some suggest it is closer to a million.
It is no wonder everything is congested and services from water to electricity fail every so often.
Port Moresby is not alone in this dilemma.