Landslip buries mother and child

 By DOROTHY MARK

A MOTHER and her five-year-old daughter were buried alive in a landslide at a village in the Usino local level government area in Madang last Thursday.

According to a relative, Newman James, the two were returning from their food garden and were descending a path beside a cliff when the landslide happened.

He said the landslide carried the mother and child 160m down to the base of the cliff.

Heavy rain had been causing problems including damage to food gardens, James added.

Pewa Aimai, from Ono village, said his 80 cocoa trees were destroyed by a landslide last week.

“The 34,000 population in Usino LLG is now starving because food gardens have been destroyed by landslides,” Aimai said.

“I have informed the government officers at Walium government station but they said the government has no money for disasters.

“Right now we need rice because our children are star­ving,” Jim Yobua, a village recorder at Ono, said.

Usino LLG president and Madang Deputy Governor Bob Wati said all these landslides came one after the other after the Surinam bridge tragedy.

“If worst comes to worst, I will appeal to the government to declare a state of emergency for this part of the country.”