Madang town

Their fear arose from last Friday’s flooding of the central business district (CBD) in the heart of Madang town.

Heavy downpour experienced on Thursday resulted in craters, resembling little pools, appearing along recently-sealed roads in town. This was a definite eyesore for residents.

With the recent wet season, the problem is likely to get worse.

The situation has prompted the chairman of the Madang Town Landowners Association, Talad Lukas, to call on relevant authorities to seriously find a lasting solution to the problem.

The new billboard placement also coincides with the swearing-in of a first-ever Madang Provincial Climate Change Committee.

The billboard sits inside the fence of Works Department compound promotes the mitigation them which reads “Enhancing Adaptive Capacity of Communities to Climate Change-related floods in the North Coast and Island Regions of PNG”

A team from the Climate Change Development Authority was in Madang to officiate at the swearing-in of the new committee.

Madang Provincial Police Commander Jacob Singura told Loop PNG that the conflict had started due to an incident that occurred two weeks ago when a 25-seater was supposedly held up by Sepiks youths along the Nagada/ RD Tuna road. This resulted in a Western Highlander man being badly beaten up and rushed to the Modilon General Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Madang Fisheries Advisor Berom Angurru says the market is funded by the Japanese government through JICA at acost of K27million.

Angurru says the market has six market buildings with state of the art toilet, rubbish bay and office space.

He says the market is one of the best in the country and will generate more than K2 million a year for the Madang Provincial Government and Madang Urban Local Level government.

Police are deployed to patrol the streets on a 24-hour basis to keep the once upon a time beautiful Madang Town from further destruction.

According to police sources, their operation will last at least a week to ensure no  further destruction of properties in Madang.

Police said the riot led to shops, mainly owned  by Asians and resulted  from a  protest called by locals but rejected by police.

The protest notice was turned down by police. Opportunists took advantage of the situation and damaged stores mainly owned by the Asians.