Open MPs’ job to resolve water woes

I REFER to the letter “We need water badly, Parkop” (The National, Oct 5) by “Kande man”.
The writer is barking up the wrong tree.
The question should have been directed to the open members of 8-Mile, 9-Mile, Pari, Tatana, etc.
Why pose the question to the governor when the open members are supposed to look into bringing such basic services to their electorates?
What are they doing with the DSIP funds meant for such services?
City residents, after a long time, are finally seeing tangible benefits thanks to Governor Powes Parkop.
We hardly see such services during the reign of previous governors.
Parkop has taken only three years to bring much needed improvement to the capital city of PNG.
If we were to use this as a yardstick, then it would have taken previous governors decades to achieve what we are seeing today.
Having said this, there is a bigger problem which I know politicians and administrators of our city are having difficulty dealing with.
I refer to the settlements.
A settlement in our context refers to the illegal squatting on government or customary land.
This is further complicated by the fact that there is hardly a settlement in the city that pays water bills or is legally connected.
Until we develop mechanisms to collect tariffs for the services provided, we will continue to face water and power problems in our settlements.
A service that our leaders can deliver to settlements is the upgrading and sealing of roads.
This is something that is achievable if only our open members were to show their commitment now instead of leaving it till the next election.

Mosbi Tauna
Port Moresby