K540,000 funding to solve water woes at Barawagi jail

WATER problems at the Barawagi Prison in Chimbu will now be addressed, thanks to a joint funding of K540,000 by the provincial and national governments.
The government, through the Public Investment Programme funding, allocated K490,000 while the Chimbu government put K50,000 through the provincial Services Improvement Programme funding.
Governor’s project coordinator, Joel Gul said they had engaged contractor Alliance Project to build the new water supply system.
“It will be a complete overhaul of the old water system,” Gul said.
“The prison will have a new 40,000 litre Southern Cross water tank, a new water pump, new water treatment facility and new hose and pipe fittings system.”
Barawagi Prison commander Supt Michael Auriap said the prison had been having water problem for some time now because the pump system was not working properly and well running dry.
Auriap said the prison was holding twice as many prisners it was built for and that was taking a toll on the infrastructure.
“Our holding capacity is about 200 prisoners but now we have 400 inmates.”