Rural water supply goes to Chimbu

National, Normal
Source:

The National –Friday, January 7, 2011

 By VERONICA FRANCIS 

TWENTY-two thousand people from the Kerowagi, Barawagi and Gagugl areas in Chimbu will soon have clean water supply.

According to European Union’s rural water supply and sanitation programme (RWSSP) engineer Stuart Jordan, the Kerowagi Barawagi water supply, hygiene and sanitation project was the largest of the entire EU-funded RWSSP projects.

He said the aim of the project was to improve health and the people’s lifestyle with emphasis on individuals changing their attitude towards their hygiene and sanitation which something similar to the “healthy island” approach.

He said they would build a gravity-fed system for a population of 10,000 and would construct an extension pipeline from a new reservoir for 12,000 people.

“All in all, 22,000 people in the area will have improved access to water in which the additional benefits are much better in terms of hygiene behaviour change and sanitation improvements,” he said.

Jordan said the total cost of the project was K1.67 million, however, K1.58 million would come from EU and the remaining would come from community contributions.

He said since 2006, there had been a total of K60 million spent across PNG for rural communities under EU-RWSSP, however, this funding mechanism was due to end in 2012.

“A population of about 400,000 people will have benefited from improved water supplies, latrines and hygiene behavioural change,” he said.

Project manager John Kamb, from Kamb Social and Economic Development Foundation, said it was a big project and he commended the European Union for identifying the needs of the rural communities by extending the RWSSP programmes to these areas.

He said, currently, a tender notice was being written up and an invitation had been extended to potential companies, suppliers and manufacturers to bid for the supply of construction materials.