Villagers repair neglected road

MORE than 10,000 people living in Piambel near Kaupena in Imbonggu, Southern Highlands, have not benefitted much from basic government services during the past 36 years.
The only government entity is Piambel Primary School.
Using their own initiative, they constructed a 13km road from Piambel to the Highlands Highway which was first built about 30 years ago.
They had hoped that the government would step in to upgrade it.
Since the nothing happened, the Kunukumbe people decided that 30 years of waiting was long enough.
Armed with bush knives, spades, and chopped logs, they began fixing and reconstructing the road last week.
The logs were used to fill up patches in the road as well as fix two wooden bridges over the Paunda and Monggen rivers.
The bridges had weathered through the years and the wooden boards had rotted away.
The nearest health centre is a tiring 3km walk away and the sick are carried on stretchers there, while pregnant women often opt for delivery back home with traditional midwives because they cannot reach a hospital.
Most students and working class people have since migrated elsewhere in search of better access to goods and services.
Piambel Primary School’s deputy head teacher Michael Mendep said it was difficult working there.
He said transporting school supplies and teachers goods was not easy because they had to walk the long distance with the entire load.
He said the locals were doing what they could, but needed support from other sources that could help them upgrade their road so that vehicles could travel in.
He said a large population of the province lived there and it was time the government addressed the needs of the people.