Heavy rain causes road damages

By ROSELYN ELLISON
CONNECTIVITY by road links to communities in East New Britain has been cut off since last Sunday.
Provincial administrator Wilson Matava said the team from the Provincial Disaster Office in Kokopo have already visited all the affected areas.
The continuous heavy down fall have caused damages to all roads linking one place to another. Floods have been causing major damages to all the roads network in the province.
Matava said technical team from the provincial administration together with the disaster office have compiled a situation report for all the affected areas.
He said upon making assessment to all the affected zone areas, they have drawn a K50 million budget.
Matava also said the situation report with the K50 million budget will be presented to the provincial executive council (PEC) today.
The same report will be also presented to the Government by East New Britain Governor Nakikus Konga together with the four open MPs.
“The K50 million funding assistance that the province will be requesting from the Government is for the short and long term development plan when it comes to disaster or emergency in the future,” Matava said.
He said the funding assistance would also help to restore back basic services such as roads, schools as well as all the affected health facilities.
Also the reports received from the National Weather Office in Moresby says that, is most likely the heavy rainfall is expected to continue for longer period.
“ENB is one of the most disaster zone province, as we are vulnerable to different forms of disaster, therefore we are kindly requesting the Government for emergency relief support funds,” Matava said.
Most schools in the province have suspended classes due to the heavy rain fall on Monday.
Meanwhile, 40 families from Malaguna No.3 in the Balanataman LLG in Rabaul have lost all their belongings.
According to Matava, the 40 displaced families are now relocated at the St Joseph Catholic Church area in Rabaul.