Philemon officiates groundbreaking of new township in Milne Bay

 MILNE Bay Governor Titus Philemon last week launched work on the development of Alotau’s newest suburb, Gehua, with a groundbreaking ceremony.

Located behind Waema village, west of Alotau town, the Gehua township development is set to become the town’s seventh suburb.

Philemon, before getting behind the controls of a bulldozer to scoop earth to signal the start of development work, touted the township project as a “Seventh Haven”.

He said the Gehua township development was one of the impact projects of his government, which had allocated K2 million to start the development work. 

Further allocations will be made for the development over the next five years.

He said Alotau was growing fast and had become congested with the population increasing, business activities growing and the need for housing rapidly increasing.

As a result, settlements have begun to grow in and around the town, and the Gehua township project was aimed to address these issues.

The plan is to develop an affordable housing estate where low to medium income earners who work for the government and the business houses and who reside in 

the settlements can be resettled.

Amenities and services such as water, power supply, road access, police station, clinic, school and shops will be put in place. 

These services can be accessed by the communities in and around Waema and Rabe.

Philemon added that Gehua was the first impact project by his government to be launched. 

Others to follow soon include the new provincial government office complex, Alotau-East Cape Road upgrading and resealing, jointly with the Alotau district improvement programme, Samarai restoration project, communication improvement project with Digicel and intensive agriculture farms development with Israeli company LR Group.

Philemon urged the people of Waema and Rabe and surrounding communities to work with his government to bring development and services to their areas.