Give it time

By GYNNIE KERO
IT will take about a year to rebuild infrastructure damaged by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake 15 days ago, says Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.
He told a radio talkback show in Port Moresby on Friday that the rebuilding phase would take time.
“Health centres and hospitals that collapsed, rebuilding of that will take time. Probably over the next 12 months is an estimated time for us to rebuild many of these infrastructure,” he said.
“Rebuilding of Komo airport (in Hela) will take some time. Over 900 metres of crack happened right in the middle of the airport.
“No heavy-loaded planes can land for the project and to service the area. So that airport remains closed. The engineers are already on the ground.
“The experts from US and Australia have been mobilised and are doing studies on the ground whether we can rescue that airport or not.
“It certainly will take some time to rebuild.” He said many school facilities had been badly damaged.
“Some students have to be transferred to other schools that can cater for them,” he said.
“In fact, for grades 11 and 12, (we are talking about) the possibility of moving them to other provinces, especially to boarding schools so that they can be able to continue their education.”
Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra said last week that many schools and higher institutions in the earthquake-affected areas remained closed as authorities await detailed reports of the situation before addressing them.
Kombra said the education department had tasked regional and provincial school inspectors in Southern Highlands, Enga, Hela and Western to check the schools and submit reports.
“We will also send some officers from Port Moresby to assess the situation, then we will decide what to do,” the secretary said.
“From the information we have received and also from what we have read in the papers, some schools were affected while others were not. But we will need a detailed report from our officers to make a decision.”
Kombra said that in the meantime, affected schools remain “unofficially closed”.