Roads key to development

 GOOD roads are the key to development which the Government should treat as important, a Christian group in Jiwaka says.

Global Swan, a Seventh Day Adventist Church body, revealed this after constructing a 10-km road on the border of Jiwaka and Chimbu.

The road begins at Wara Manch covering the Manada community which has 13 council wards and a population of more than 20,000.

Global Swan extended the road to East and West Kambia and Mt Au, which had no roads. People had to walk for days to reach Chimbu or Minj in Jiwaka.

The opening of the new 10-km road took place on Dec 21 at Manda.

Association chairman Dr Penge Oko said the road was built towards the Kubor Range and would connect East and West Kambia, and Mt Au in Jiwaka’s Anglimp-South Waghi electorate. He said association members walked the bush tracks to East and West Kambia and did the entire social mapping before deciding to build the road.

Oko said roads were the key to development and thousands of people had been suffering for decades because they did not have roads.

“This is the key and the association is doing what it can to help thousands of people who had been cut-off from the rest of the world for decades.”

Jiwaka Governor Dr William Tongamp thanked the association for taking the initiative.

Tongamp said he liked working with such groups which wanted to deliver services to the people.