Northwest of the high steel and glass towers of downtown Port Moresby and the ports, lies Hanuabada, the biggest Motuan Village - one of only a few traditional villages built over the water on stilts still standing.
Instead of wooden thatched houses, the ‘Big Village’ as it is referred to nowadays, while still standing on stilts over the water, and still observing many traditional customs, is home to about 18,000 men, women and children (or maybe more) in homes built with concrete fibre, timber with corrugated roofing.
The Motuans are native inhabitants of Papua New Guinea, living along the southern coastal area of PNG. Their indigenous language is Motu, like several other languages of the region, an Austronesian language. They and the Koitabu people are the original inhabitants and owners of the land on which Port Moresby, the national capital city, stands.
Urbanisation is forcing growing communities and villages including Hanuabada to use existing or ad hoc alternative sanitation practises that are poor, unsafe and over time costly. Living conditions are consequently degraded and public health and environmental costs associated with blocked or missing drain resources, rubbish washed onto the village from the seas, create public health hazards and damages that extend into other areas including in health and general hygiene.
World Vision PNG’s recently launched Hanuabada Ranu Bona Mauri Namona Gaukara or Water and Healthy Life Project, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and World Vision New Zealand is a first ever urban WASH project in PNG and also for World Vision in PNG is expected to benefit about 2,500 households in Hanuabada over a four-year period by improving access to safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, waste collection services and improving hygiene and waste disposal behaviour.
The project hopes to work towards achieving a coordinated approach with the support of key partners and stakeholders including relevant government agencies for service delivery to meet project outcomes in managing and collection of waste, water, implement the government’s Healthy Island Concept to promote behaviour change and advocacy for sanitation upgrade and improving school sanitation and hygiene facilities.
To officially kick-start the project, a major community clean-up day was organised on Saturday, May 28 at Hanuabada-Elevala communities which saw more than 2,500 villagers take time out to clean their homes and in and around the vicinity of their homes. Household wastes were piled into garbage bags and removed by the local city authority the National Capital District Commission (who also sponsored 1000 t-shirts as well for the event) and local construction company Curtain Brothers, who provided two 10 tonne trucks for waste removal and an excavator. Piles and piles of rubbish and household waste were removed over three days from Saturday to Monday, in about 40 truckloads.
Finding solutions to current service delivery shortfalls is challenging as solutions need to be effective and be responding to specific needs and be implemented with relatively limited financial and technical resources. The support of event partners including private sector sponsors Steamships Trading Company, PNG Ports Limited, local pharmaceutical company City Pharmacy, Steel Industries, Southern Cross Pumps, Tent Manufacturers, media partner Lalokau FM (89.1) and Seruna Construction ensured the community clean-up a success.
Project partners include the Motu Koitabu Assembly (local government), the National Capital District Commission (city authority), Sustainable Coastlines PNG, Curtain Brothers, the PNG Olympic Committee and Volunteer Services Abroad. The clean-up event utilised PNG’s international sports stars and civic persons including Gold Medallists Dika Toua weightlifting and other sporting stars in friendly games after the clean-up. The sporting icons including Steven Kari or the ‘Golden Children’ as both are referred to, are from Hanuabada and are project ambassadors advocating for better health of the community and for the children of Hanuabada.
There is considerable scope for development partners to constructively support the biggest Motuan Village through the provision of technical assistance and analysis in key areas which may not yet be a priority for government and which may not yet be or not effective in current service delivery and support to the community and which the project aims to look into. These areas include cost benefit analysis of water and sanitation investments; advocacy; policy development and strategic planning; research of technical options and piloting of key initiatives including the installation of gross pollutant traps, among others.
The Water and Healthy Life Project, funded by the New Zealand Aid Program, was launched early in May at the ‘Big Village’. It is the first Urban Water Sanitation & Hygiene Project (WASH) in PNG and is expected to benefit more than 17,950 people (2,500 households) in Hanuabada over a four-year period by improving access to safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, waste collection services and improving hygiene and waste disposal behaviour.
World Vision’s PNG Operation Manager Stella Rumbam thanked organisations and corporates who supported the event and called for a continuing partnership.
“Alongside significant community support and participation this project will require the input and involvement of partners across multiple-sectors. We are actively seeking partners that can contribute their expertise and resources to assist in improving the health of Hanuabada’s residents,” said Mrs Rumbam.
Community member and Women’s Representative in the Motu Koitabu Assembly Mary Oala who also supported the event through provision of refreshments expressed satisfaction at the level of partnership and participation of whole families during the clean-up event.
World Vision PNG has successfully conducted WASH programs in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Madang, Morobe and the Western Province where we are currently working in partnership with government, corporate partners including Coca-Cola and donors including the New Zealand and Australian Governments and the European Union.
(Caption:Piled rubbish during the clean-up and in the background machinery provided by partner Curtain Brothers including two dump trucks and excavator at work in removing rubbish.)
