Inmates in NIP get training

INMATES and officers in a prison facility have completed a first-of-its-kind aquaponics project as part of a training programme.
Inmates and Correctional Service officers at the Kavieng jail were certified on Friday for participating in a month-long programme which was conducted in Kavieng, New Ireland.
New Zealand volunteer Janna Haan said the programme had a one-week theory component and three weeks of practical work.
“We ran one week of theory sessions at the Fisheries College and then the participants came out here to the prison and built the project,” Haan, an aquaculture adviser at the Fisheries College, said.
The project included a cement pond filled with fish, which has a locally-made treadle pump that pumps the water from the pond to a reservoir tank that is channelled to plants which are grown by hydroponics – method of cultivating plants in water.
That water is again fed back into the pond and the cycle continues.
“The water filled with waste from tilapia is passed through the plants and they clean the water by taking in the nutrients from the water,” Haan said.
Haan said the 19 participants, which included six females and 13 males, worked hard at the project until its completion.
Five prisoners and 14 officers participated in the programme.