Kavo urged to address bad road conditions

Normal, Papua

AFTER 34 years of Independence, the people of Gulf province are still struggling to travel to Port Moresby and other provincial centres because of bad road conditions.
Having no road connection since 1975 had made life much harder for the Oyapu people in Gulf province and it was about time something was done, a village elder said.
Seventy-year-old Francis Tipura Nao visited The National to raise his concern on behalf of the Oyapu people to get the attention of their Governor Havila Kavo and their local MP.
He said there had been no road linking the five villages at Oyapu, which boasts a population of more than 5,000.
“I’m from Rove village and it takes three hours to walk from the Trans-Island Highway to my village,” Mr Nao said.
He said life was hard as they had to walk the long stretch of road with their cargoes on their tired shoulders every time when they return from town.
“It’s been too long now and I ask the governor and our local Member to please think of us, your Oyapu people,” he said.
Mr Nao said that if nothing was to be done, then they would have to “migrate” to Port Moresby.
He said he used to remember his people walking from Bereina to Waima, Kivori and then home to
Oyapu.