Years of neglect affect road

By MALUM NALU
WHAT is happening along the Highlands Highway today is the result of years of neglect by the Government, Lae Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Alan McLay says.
He said this yesterday as two landslides in Watabung and Daulo Pass in Eastern Highlands, plus the flooding in Morobe’s Markham Valley, disrupted traffic flow.
McLay said the flooding problem in Markham “had been building up for years”.
A report by a geologist several years ago had warned of the dangers of the aggregation of rivers in the valley, he said.
He also blamed the chopping down of trees in the surrounding hills and mountains for the soil erosion and landslides.
“The problems have been building up with no real attempt to solve them,” he said.
“There is a need for reforestation of logged-out areas in the hills. We constantly need to bridge the rivers and build up the road along the Markham Highway. Otherwise, it’s going to keep on happening every year.”
Last October, McLay suggested that the continuous flooding of the highway in Markham could be eased if equipment were provided to clear silt and sediment flowing down from the Finisterre Range.
This is particularly at Zumim where the Mangyang River creates havoc on the highway every time it floods.
McLay said the problem started in the early 1990s when there was a major landslide in the Finisterre Range. It built up silt and sediment causing the river level to rise.
“All that landslide moved down the streams and water is now flowing higher than what it used to be,” he said.
He urged the Works Department to either dredge the streams or raise the road level.