A village in Porgera will now have access to potable water, courtesy of a Memorandum of Agreement with the Porgera Joint Venture.
The Top Yarik supplementary water project was recently handed over to the responsible village water committee following the installation of 44 Tuffa tanks at various locations.
On Tuesday 20th November, 21 village water committee members from Top Yarik signed off on the project Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Porgera JV.
Top Yarik is one of seven Special Mine Lease (SML) communities that have benefited from Porgera JV’s Supplementary Water Project which was initiated in 2016.
The tanks were installed at 27 locations.
The installed tank capacities were nine 9000L, ten 5000L and twenty-two 1000L water tanks.
Porgera JV’s Community Development Senior Officer, Max Piawen, said the Top Yarik water project was planned in 2016 but several factors, including the sinkholes and earthquakes, had caused a delay to the project. This resulted in the community being the last to have completed the supplementary water project for the SML communities.
Community Development Manager Jacqueline Nen commended the VWC for enabling the project to see through completion without any related injuries.
She said what was important was that all the parties now close-off on the project MoA to mark its completion on the part of BNL and for the VWC to take on their responsibility of managing the project.
“It is now your project to manage for your communities. Under the water project MoA, there are other areas of assistance which we will also look at, which includes agriculture projects and training,” Nen said.
Representing the village water committee members from Upper Yarik, Mathew Yapala thanked Porgera JV for the water project, describing it as a real need for the community.
The Upper Yarik Supplementary Water Project MoA was signed between BNL and VWC on March 17th agreeing to have the water project undertaken.
A total of 114 water tanks had been installed in seven SML village communities since the start of the PJV supplementary water project in 2016.
Other villages that have benefited are Panadaka, Alipis, Apalaka, Timorope, Pakien and Mungulep.
For Porgera JV’s Community Development section, the completion of the Yarik water project means the section can now move into the next phase of the program – food security training and implementation across the communities that host water tanks.