Woman urges leaders to repair SHP roads

 CONSISTENT rain in Southern Highlands has worsened the condition of the Mendi-Tari road, it has been revealed.

Lina Pipon, a woman leader in the Lower Wagi local level government, has urged Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Works Minister Francis Awesa who hail from Southern Highlands to fix the roads.

She said the rain and the use of the road by big trucks travelling to the liquefied natural gas project in Hela had adversely affected the road.

The worst section from Mendi to the Lai bridge is in Awesa’s Imbong­gu electorate, she pointed out.

The other sections of the road in the Nipa-Kutubu electorate affected are Tindom Hill, Komea Halha land the Towan Hiri road in the Lower Wagi LLG in Hela.

The road users blamed the government for its negligence in maintaining the road.

PMV operators from Kutubu and Nipa Terry Hep (Nipa), Gideon Pa, Steven Eng and Jack Pe (Kutubu) agreed with Pipon and called on the government to do something about the road as soon as possible.

Pipon said 400,000 people depended on the road in Imbonggu, Nipa-Kutubu and Hela.

She said the road led to major oil projects such as Kutubu, Iagifu oil, Moran One, Moran Two, Southwest Mananda and the Mt Kare gold exploration sites.

“Almost every week, I see big trucks and even small PMV buses break down along this section of the road.

“We, the small people in the two provinces are struggling to earn our living using these roads,” Pipon said.