A community in the Central District of the Autonomous region of Bouganville is waiting for outstanding payments to the tune of K490,000, for a bridge they built back in 2014 using personal funds.
This comes after they were promised by the then Central Bougainville MP that their funds would be reimbursed once the bridge was complete.
Maya Tunjio a local from the Kabaku area which is the site of the Kabaku bridge told Loop PNG that he had invested up to K111,000 from his own pocket .
He said the bridge was seen as a necessity because the villagers were finding it difficult to transport commodities like cocoa and other produce to the market for their livelihood.
“After the crises we started cleaning our plantations, but when we wanted to take our commodities to market we couldn’t, even vehicles couldn’t cross the river because of the huge stones.
“So myself and other likeminded individuals decided that we had to take matters into our own hands,” explained Maya.
With the advice of a local iron and panel beater specialist Maya and his people negotiated with Panguna landowners to have iron from the Mine pit transferred to Kabaku, which is just minutes away from the Arawa township, Bouganville's former provincial capital.
“The Panguna landowners were in agreement and said they would provide the iron but the Government had to pay for the iron.
“We got a crane truck to bring the iron back here, the design was done by a local, Paul Tana, for the labour we asked the young men to come and work, all together we had 12 people for labour work.
“There was no funding, we asked the community to contribute and buy the electrical grinder, grinding dish and paint, but not many people contributed because they didn’t have the money, however the will power was there.
“At the time I was raising money to build my house, I sat with my wife and we agreed to halt the building of our house and divert our money to the construction of the bridge.
“We said when the government refunds our money we will complete our house.
The construction of the bridge started on the 14th of August 2014, and was finally completed in May 2017.
The 64 year old hopes the government will eventually re-pay the landowners what is owed to them.
“The payment for the labour and the Iron from Panguna is still outstanding.”
To this day Maya’s family home remains incomplete, a sacrifice he made for the collective good of his community.