No water for cooking, drinking

ANOTHER problem has risen in Menyamya.
There is no water for cooking and drinking and this has also added an extra burden for health workers in the district trying to contain the influenza and dysentery outbreak.
Deputy provincial Health adviser and director of the Menyamya operation Micah Yawing said since last night, people had had no water for drinking and cooking.
 The three main educational institutions in the district have not had proper water catchment facilities for years.
The institutions – Menyamya High School, Menyamya Vocational and Menyamya Primary School – all reported yesterday there was no clean water left for cooking and drinking.
The water problem has been further fuelled by the prolonged dry season that has been on-going for the past month and a half.
The only water available is from the three main rivers but are only used by people for washing because it is also contaminated.
Menyamya High School has a student population of 446 and it has been closed due to the outbreak and the water shortage.
School headmaster Casper Nani said they could not do much without proper Government facilities, most of which were run down.
He said their pleas to the National Government and provincial headquarters had not elicited any response.
The headmaster of Menyamya Primary School, Simon Naptali said the school had not had a water tank, let alone a proper water catchment facility for the past 15 years.
Mr Naptali said the school had also been closed down because the water problem had now caused double trouble for his 14 teachers and 130 pupils.
Deputy manager of the vocational centre Yokea Guwo said the only water tanks that had been used were those at Menyamya Station.
But the water from these tanks are also being used by people from surrounding villages and, by yesterday, all the water in the tanks had been used up.
Mr Yawing said there had been no supplies, no response and no word at all from the central coordinating unit in Lae.
He said the unit in Lae had been working in isolation without any consultation with him and the team in Menyamya.
Food rations were also running out and there had been no supplies from the Government or business houses to date, Mr Yawing said.
Last night, health workers, including those in the affected areas, went without any water for cooking and drinking.