Madang disaster office in dire need

 By JAYNE SAFIHAO

MADANG provincial government is not overly concerned about natural disasters affecting its people due to their non-committal approach to disasters, according to a senior official.

Most notable was the lack of funding for the past five years, said assistant director provincial disaster Rudolph Mongalee, whose office has been “drowned by disaster requests” since the washing away for the Surinam Bridge.

“I have had requests from affected villagers from inland Tauta in the Naho Rawa LLG in Raicoast, the entire Ramu river banks are flooded down to Keram River (bordering East Sepik) and the lower Ramu in Bogia but the provincial heads are telling me to wait,” he said.

Mongalee said that while the provincial administrator’s office, treasury and his office “are sitting on our laurels”, lives were being lost.

He said that costing done since last month for the affected areas and sent to the administrator’s office was not attended to.

“I asked him if he could write to the six MPs of the province to allocate K1 million of their district support improvement programme (DSIP) funds to assist this office but he bluntly refused,” Mongalee said.

“Local people are using their own time, resources and funds in assisting or looking for the lost, drowned or buried relatives while the Madang provincial government is not concerned.”

He reiterated that the provincial disaster office had been without any proper logistics for a long time.