Maprik wants Sepik Central province

By ELLEN TIAMU
MEMBER for Maprik Gabriel Kapris says by 2017, Maprik will become the nerve centre of a new province to be known as Sepik Central.
He promised to introduce a bill in this session of parliament to get the ball rolling.
Kapris said he was confident of the support of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and parliament.
Speaking in Lae yesterday, Kapris said East Sepik “is far too big and, for too long, rural people in west Yangoru, Wosera, Dreikikir, Pagwi and Ambunti and West Sepik’s Lumi and Nuku have been suffering from lack of basic government services.
He said unlike Hela and Jiwaka, Maprik already boasted an urban town with communication, power, water and banking services as well as supermarkets and an effective police station.
“A strong agricultural and economic base is in place and booming with vanilla, cocoa, coffee and oil palm and dry rice farming that will sustain the 300,000-odd voting age people,” Kapris said.
“An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 smallholder farmers are into cash crop cultivation, with cocoa alone roping in US$100 million (K210 million) per annum.”
He said the National Airports Corporation had endorsed the construction of an airport at Hayfield, in Maprik, to accommodate third-level aircraft and the health centre, already a referral facility, would soon be upgraded to a hospital.