Power project for Rai Coast

PEOPLE in Madang’s Rai Coast will soon have access to a clean, sustainable and affordable electricity through micro-grid projects, according to an official.
Rai Coast MP Kessy Sawang said that on Monday after signing a memorandum of understanding with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through a Papua New Guinea electrification partnership (PEP) to carry out the exercise.
“We need enablers like electricity, water and sanitation, and digital connectivity to build our district so that our rural households will have access to clean, sustainable and affordable energy that has zero adverse environmental effects,” she said.
Sawang said the first priority would be to power up Saidor Station as it needed critical interventions to build the administrative capacity of the district.
“Saidor is in the dark without electricity, water and a functional district office and shockingly run-down with houses from the colonial era,” she said.
Sawang said for almost a decade the public servants of the district had been operating out of Madang town due to these shortcomings.
“We need to build our district town to move our public servants back to the district to effectively implement our (development) programmes.”
The former senior public servant said an engineering team from the USAID-PEP would visit the district next month to conduct a feasibility study over a two-week period in preparation for the project.
The USAID-PEP is a five-year project partnership between the Government and USAID to advance the country’s drive to self-reliance to achieve the goal of connecting 70 per cent of PNG’s population to electricity by 2030.