Mayhem in NIP after rain, wind

THE first month of 2020 brought strong winds and heavy rain to New Ireland with a number of disaster cases already reported to authorities including people missing at sea, roads and bridges being washed away, landslips and food gardens destroyed.
Three council areas in Namatanai have been cut off completely making it difficult to access services in town.
One of the worst hit areas is the Matalai local level government in Namatanai which is Governor Sir Julius Chan’s home district.
Sir Julius said the damage caused was great and the people would need help from the provincial and national governments.
He said the New Ireland government had spent millions on road infrastructure and bridges along the Boluminski Highway from its own funds, mostly from royalties through dividends from the Lihir gold mine.
“Unfortunately, this will cause a delay to all priority projects as focus is now on addressing the damages caused by mother nature,” he said.
“But people must never give up. There is a reason and season for everything. We must break through the tides and rise above flooded rivers and destroyed roads.”
Sir Julius said the Government was obligated since the signing of the first Lihir memorandum of agreement (MoA) in 1995 to provide funding for at least 27 projects.
He said these projects range from new water and power systems for Kavieng, to a fully sealed Boluminski Highway through to Metlik, a fully upgraded West Coast Highway, a Kavieng International Airport, new hospitals, ring roads for the outer islands and many other projects critical for the wellbeing of the people.
In total, the New Ireland government spent well over K100 million of its own funds on these projects.
Sir Julies said despite the efforts of the New Ireland government, to this day, most of those projects promised in 1995 remain unimplemented.
The total cost of these projects was estimated at K65.9 million in the 1995 Lihir MoA.
However, because 25 years have passed since that estimate, the true cost today, taking into account inflation, would be over K700 million.