Rain affects crops, roads in highlands

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
CONTINUOUS rainfall in some parts of the highlands region is causing damage to food gardens and roads.
Families affected live along the road and on the mountains in the Nipa district, Southern Highlands.
Nipa Basin local level government council president David Navur said yesterday food gardens at the foot of mountains had been covered by landslides.
Navur said the Lai River had burst its banks.
He said the continuous rainfall, which started early last month, had affected the Nipa-Tari section of the road.
Navur said big trucks found it hard to climb steep sections of the road.
He said people in his Nipa Basin area were suffering from flu.
In Enga, people are complaining about backaches from travelling on the deteriorating road between Wapenamanda and Wabag.
John Paialye, a 15-seater bus driver from Pawas village outside Wabag town, said last Friday morning in Wabag that in the past he used to make two trips to Mt Hagen and back
Nowaday he could only manage one.
Paialye said the Wabag-Wapenamanda section of the road had gone from bad to worse.
He said twice he had smashed the radiator of his bus at the Mukurumanda and Akom sections of the road in Wapenamanda district.
Paialye said other drivers from Enga complained of developing backaches.
They said their PMV buses also became bogged down in potholes filled with rainwater.
Acting Prime Minister and Wabag MP Sam Abal awarded a K16 million contract to the provincial works to fix the Wapenamanda-Wabag road.
The contract was awarded two months ago.
The provincial works will start work soon as it is still getting the materials and equipment ready for the project.