Western Province

Recently four people in the Western province were intercepted by police along the Fly River with about K60 thousand worth of marijuana.

The three men and woman have been detained and charged for drug conveyance and trading, however despite this, the North Fly Police Commander Joe Puri is adamant that the laws need to be reviewed and penalties made more severe to deter the trade.

He added that despite people being detained and charged, the penalties at present do not seem to deter people from the illegal drug trade.

The Governor spoke about the need to focus on development plans in terms of the main development agendas of health, education and infrastructure.

He challenged main development partners to take stock of the resource gains that they have as a result of the province and bring the resources back into the province to make it work for the benefit of the people.

Meantime, the Acting Provincial Administrator, Robert Alphonse, challenged that there needs to be a paradigm shift in terms of a progressive public service focused on management and accountability.

Emergency Controller Dr Bill Hamblin has revealed that North Fly is one of the worst hit areas.

The disaster has caused many problems now for people in those areas.

Some of those issues include landslides, water logging and gardens which have been washed away, while in other parts water sources have been greatly polluted that people have been going without food and water for days on end. 

Residents in Ialibu and Hela have confirmed that the quake had been a strong one, lasting for almost 10 seconds.

The Port Moresby Geophysical Observatory (PMGO) says the epicentre was about 45km West of Tari. 

Details are:

Time:                     3.48 pm

Location:              5.8 ° S, 142.5 ° E

Depth:                  10km

Mag:                      6.3

“The earthquake occurred as a result of fault movements in the Papuan Fold and Thrust Belt, which runs parallel to the axial mountain range of PNG,” reports the PMGO.

The injured who were airlifted to Mogulu includes a child with a broken arm, a woman with laceration to her foot, another with severe burns to both feet.

A child living with disability was also picked up and will be reunited with her family.

They were airlifted by the disaster relief team currently going around the Western province. 

Roads and paths have been buried making it difficult for locals around Mogulu reaching the station.

This newsroom received unconfirmed reports that an estimated 13 people were killed at Huiya village while some have been unaccounted for.

Project Officer of the North Fly District, Larry Franklin, who is involved in the disaster relief operation, told this newsroom neighbouring villagers fled into Huiya and Dodomona since disaster struck.

He said there are about 1,200 people currently at Dodomona village.

Food and water was running out until today when the MAF delivered much-needed relief supplies to Huiya.

During Monday’s earthquake, a landslip occurred in Western Province, blocking off access to the Ok Tedi Mine road.

The landslip also damaged water and concentrate pipeline and it will take days before the pipes are restored.

Ok Tedi managing director and CEO, Peter Graham, said they hope to have the road cleared by the end of today to allow access for light vehicles into and out of the mine.

A newly-procured tuberculosis (TB) van with digital x-ray and computer aided diagnostic with the slogan, ‘Let’s kick TB out of PNG – ACT now’, will be inaugurated today (February 5).

This is in response to the emergency TB and multidrug-resistant TB situation in Daru, Western Province.

High level delegates of development partners will observe today’s event, which will be officiated by Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS, Sir Puka Temu.

The ceremony will be hosted at the Daru oval.

The team, led by national project coordinator, Tom Anayabere, ran awareness and tests using portable desalination plants and carried out formal technical demonstrations along areas in the Southern Region.

The team travelled to Fisherman Island in NCD, Hula, Kaparoko Village and Mainohana Catholic Secondary School in Central Province, and Aivau Village at the mouth of the Vailala River leading into Ihu, Gulf Province.

Phase one of this awareness commenced after handing over the desalination plants in Manus in September last year.

In that meeting, the North Fly DDA board members, including local MP and chairman, James Donald, are expected to deliberate on the break-up of the projected K2 million budget.