Landslides affect 700

 By GABRIEL FITO

MORE than 700 people at King and Kolembi villages on the border of East and West Sepik provinces have been badly affected by landslides caused by heavy rain.

Families are homeless after 39 houses at Kolembi village in Nuku district were buried in the massive landslide.

Nuku district disaster officer Johnson Siren said the situation was catastrophic and needed immediate government attention. 

Families are living in two centres not far from where their villages once stood.

No casualties were reported but sago trees, food gardens and cocoa trees were destroyed. 

The village cemetery and primary school were also affected.

Village disaster committee chairman Jerry Nimoten said they were forced to suspend classes because the school grounds were on the verge of sliding downhill.

“The landslip, measuring about 90m wide and 3.5km in length, fell from the top of Kolembi village ridge down to the river where King and Kolembi villages are located,” Nimoten said.

King village is located in the Dreikikir LLG of East Sepik.

Nimoten thanked Siren and officers from Nuku and another team from Dreikikir who recently visited Kolembi and King villages to compile reports of the disaster.

He said the people’s immediate needs were food, water containers, building materials, cooking utensils and medicine.

Meanwhile, Nimoten and his executives organised a wheel-barrow race at Maprik town last week and K676.