More than 700 living in tents

By CLEMENT KAUPA
MORE than 700 people, including children, displaced by the ethnic clashes last year in Lae, Morobe, are still living in a makeshift so-called  “care centre” made up of tents at an out-of-way location known as Kamkumung Gravel.  
A visit by The National yesterday revealed some shocking and unsafe living conditions, especially for the many women, girls and children living there.
Contrary to the impression of a care centre, the place actually consisted of a number of long structures covered with canvas and cluster the side of a muddy road.
There is no fence around the area, no electricity and no connected water. The centre is located minutes off the Uni Gate road and has been in existence for more than a year now.
Shockingly, the 700-odd people had the use of just one pit toilet, as permitted by the customary owner of the land on which they were squatting, spokesman for the  centre Simon Kulame said yesterday.
“It is much worse (than it seems) because we have been allowed to build and use only one pit toilet,” Kulame said.
He also pointed out that a tent accommodated up to 20 people, including children and babies, in cramped and unhygienic conditions that significantly increased the risk of contracting diseases.
It could not be verified yesterday but Kulame claimed that five lives were lost already to preventable diseases such as malaria.       
“Since living in these makeshift tents without basic services, we have lost five members of our family to curable diseases like malaria but under the present situation, we cannot contain preventable diseases,” he said.
Kulame said they had not given up hope despite their situation.
“We believe that the government led by O’Neill will listen to our voices and help bring back normalcy.”
Meantime, they paid tribute to the courage of families of the ones lost during the unrest as well as the ones lost during their stay at the makeshift tent centre.