Dio Bridge is a vital link for the people of Vanimo Green district to Vanimo town and the rest of the Greater Sepik region, but until now, this bridge has been laying idle after it was destroyed by flood in 2019.
The absence of the bridge link is affecting lives and economic development in the Vanimo Green district.
Anna Kane, the head teacher of Green Primary School is one of those government officers who is risking her life and safety of school materials every time she is crossing the Dio River, without the bridge.
Kane concerns herself for the education of her students despite the difficult logistical conditions, she has never gave up trying to bring vital education materials to the school.
She expressed these concerns during a recent media visit to the area in late 2021 organized by the National Forestry Authority.
In terms of economic progress, Kane was expressing her concerns as a local PMV owner as well. She said when the bridge went down her PMV truck was not running for six months, that affected her loan repayment and her debts were building up. It was a K185,000 loan, which she got from the National Development’s People’s Micro Bank.
Like other citizens, Kane had expected the relevant authority to respond in repairing the bridge, but nothing happened and so the struggle continues.
“To go to Vanim, we have to get on canoes and follow the Dio river down to the Sepik River and go through the Papi river and Stonpas. It takes a long time,” Kane said.
As a head teacher, she has to travel to town to get school supplies, and crosses a number of rivers risking the safety of school materials every time. Kane’s journey includes camping on the riverside waiting for the high tides for as long as it takes.
She explained that when the river floods and gets rough, sometimes their motor canoes capsizes and they lose everything, going back empty handed. There are times when female teachers like other members of the community, risk losing their infants when they get into such accidents.
This is the hardship they had to face and though at this time the road has been connected to the Green River station, the last obstacle remains and that is the Dio Bridge.
Kane said the people have heard that their local MP allocated funds to repair the bridge sometime back but they haven’t seen any activities so far. It is understood that so far K1 million has been committed by the MP for Vanimo Green, Belden Namah as counterpart funding and the National Forest Authority through its Projects Development Benefits committed K360,000 for the bridge restoration.
The Vanimo-Green River road is a national road function and the Department of Works is the responsible government agency to maintain and construct infrastructure on the road.
