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The National, Friday 26th April 2013
THERE is a squatter settlement starting up between Pacific International Hospital and the 4-Mile traffic office. And it’s happening elsewhere on the hills. Can the authorities remove these shacks before it gets out of hand? The thinking seems to be: I build
my house on vacant land and when the rightful owners want to develop the land, I put up a fight and say I have been living there for donkey’s years and I now call on the government to find me alternate land to settle on or meet my repatriation costs to my home province. This is becoming a typical scenario in PNG.
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GOVERNMENT authorities should move in quickly and dismantle all squatter settlements for city development and send squatters back to their original provinces at their own cost. Governor Powes Parkop, this is a plea to you to take a tough stance on this issue. Most people who come to Port Moresby to live and work do not expect the Government to build them houses.
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MAYBE the National Housing Commission back in the 1980s should have continued building houses like the ones at Tokarara and Gerehu on vacant state land so that by now, there would be no room for the creation of squatter settlements. Good luck to NHC if it wants to resurrect this project.
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HOORAY for the community of Ebakoroso in the Kirakira/Sabama area of the Moresby South Electorate. Your MP says the road works there are only the start of many projects that he is committed to delivering, especially the important ones such as roads and water supply. Certainly, the community is looking forward to the changes in the coming months.
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READ this one … Quakers Hill resident in Australia, Arthur Roberts, turned 100 last Sunday and his
birthday wish is to visit Papua New Guinea one last time. During World War Two, Roberts served as a soldier here for three years. Roberts told his local MP – who presented him a certificate for his birthday – that he would like to see what the country is like now.
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THERE is some good news about measles control. The Western Pacific region of the World Health Organisation, to which Australia belongs, reduced measles cases by 93% between 2008 and 2012. The region includes countries such as China, Japan, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea and is on track to eliminate measles. This would be an historic public health achievement.
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CHILDREN who contract the virus are at risk of serious complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis (brain inflammation), which can be fatal.
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