Wabag MP announces plan for new market

FARMERS in Enga will soon have a new market to sell their garden produce, Wabag MP Dr Lino Tom says.
Tom said the market, which would be built at a cost of K10 million, would contain a police station, a clinic and rooms for farmers to store their produce; construction is expected to start in the first quarter of 2020.
He said the project was a follow up of an initial structure erected by former Wabag MP Sam Abal before he lost his seat in the 2012 national elections.
Tom said the Australian government had provided the funding to rebuild the current Wabag market.
He said over the last 20 years, Engan had not had a proper market to sell their food crops because the previous Wabag market facilities built during the colonial era had deteriorated badly.
As a result farmers sold their produce along the roadside leading to Wabag hospital and the Pawas buai market.
He said farmers had become victims of road accidents and faced hardship to sell their produce because there was no market in place.
Tom, who is also the Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources assured the people that their struggles would soon be over.
He said farming was the key to economic prosperity and development with the majority of the province’s people dependent on the land.
Tom said people from Surunki, Porgera, Kandep and Laiagam would be able to sell their produce at the new market; he said the market would also be a catalyst to encourage more to use their land to grow crops.