City needs an overhaul

THE city of Mt Hagen is currently the filthiest city in the country.
Everywhere you go in the city, from the market to the shopping centres and along the busy streets, rubbish and betel nut stain can be seen.
Heaps of rubbish can be seen at places that are not supposed to be. There does not seem to be a proper rubbish disposal system.
Waste collection and disposal by the city council has become a thing of the past. Waste drums are physically not available at locations for rubbish disposal.
The newly-upgraded K30m road work carried out by ESSAR construction which was completed in September and funded by the Hagen MP is a good project but filth on the street makes it look two or three years older.
Where are the authorities?
Those so-called rules inspector are around but they don’t seem to care. Some of them are seen selling buai and other items on the street while others are lazing around the authority office getting paid for doing nothing.
Where has the K5m Prime Minister Peter O’Neill gave during the city commissioning on the 26th April 2016 gone to?
If that money was given we should definitely see changes take place in this small city of the Highlands.
After it was declared city commission all citizens of the province united to clean the city one weekend. It was in ship shape for about a month and then went back to deterioration.
There is also a total breakdown in law and order within the city limits.
Visitors and people of other provinces including tourists are too scared to come into the city to do business and visit because of the lawlessness in the provincial capital.
There are pick pockets openly going around holding up people at shops and bus stops.
Every day there is a fight or two which result in many innocent people getting hurt.
Business houses and market vendors are losing their goods every day. There have been major damages done to all the buildings and infrastructures in the province by youths and so called “street mangis”. There are young men going into shops and walking out with cash and goods in broad day light.
The chamber of commerce in the province has kept quiet about this for the last four years now. They can’t tolerate it any more.
Some business houses have already closed shop and shipped out into other centres. No one attempts to stop them. Even the provincial police are powerless.
We urge all leaders and bureaucrats of Western Highlands to work together to address all these issues before going into the 2017 general elections.

Concerned
Western Highlands