Kit homes for Manam Islanders

 By DOROTHY MARK

WORK has finally started to resettle the Manam people living in care centres after 13 years.

The people were evacuated during the 2004  volcanic eruptions on the island.

Kit homes, the base for the resettlement exercise in Bogia, were transported in six big trucks from Madang.

The trucks were loaded with timber and posts and were escorted by Madang provincial administrator Daniel Aloi.

Aloi on Wednesday cautioned people living along the North Coast Highway through local radio about the heavy laden trucks and asked them to stay away from the road sides.

The kit homes would be assembled opposite the Holy Spirit School in Bogia and workers would be based there to coordinate the settlement. The Government would be resettling the Manam people at Andarum, between Josephstaal and Tangu in Bogia.

Bogia spokesmen Joe Viaken and a local from Tangu said Tangu and Josephstaal areas were undeveloped areas and the resettlement exercise for Manam in that part of the area would attract developments there.

“At last the Tangu people will see government services like good roads in the area, we Tangu people are very happy with the project,” Viaken said. However, some Manam people did not like the idea of shifting inland.

Many of them said they were coastal people and were used to the sea rather than jungles but hoped the government would make life easier for them in Andarum.