Concept benefiting islanders

 MORE than 4,000 people at the Urugen village on Karkar Island have a good reason to celebrate World Water Day last Friday as they launched the “Healthy Island Concept”.

They gathered to see the opening of the programme.

The village saw flowers planted in neat rows and boundaries, the lawns mowed at homes to mark the beginning of the implementation of the programme.  

Provincial health promotion officer Bernadette Imbosi was impressed and said Karkar Island would be declared a healthy island by 2015.

She said living in a clean environment and being healthy promoted wealth and also made children develop quicker.

Imbosi and a team of inspectors visited Urugen, Gial, Sangana, Tugutugu and Deldugu villages and encouraged the villagers to continue to clean up the place and plant flowers around their yards and walkways.

Chairman for the Healthy Island Concept committee at Urugen village, Gei Nugur, said the number of people getting sick in the village had decreased since the introduction of the concept.