Rai Coast district

A rivalry between these two LLGs erupted from a family feud in August of this year, resulting in the gruesome murder of a Yawar man by the Bom people. They had murdered and chopped the victims head and had it attached to a stick, which was placed at a public roadside. This had caused total unrest between these two factions of people and other innocent people to experience the negative impacts of not having any government services reach these areas.

One of them is accessing better transportation services and on this take, the RDDA on Tuesday 28^th November presented a cheque of K380,000 to the Rural Airstrip Agency (RRA) to restore and maintain the rural airstrips in the district, to meet the required safety standard for the benefit of its rural people.

Member for Rai Coast and Minister for Labour & Employment Kessy Sawang presented the cheque on behalf of the people of Rai Coast and the RDDA.

Inspector Yalamu said ballot papers for Astrolobe Bay LLG and Nahu Rawa were already transported to Madang but not yet for other polling sites.

He said transportation to and from Rai Coast is challenging, as the polling sites is only accessible by boat or chopper.

Yalamu said the teams had faced many challenges while travelling on boat, one of them is the current windy weather affecting travel.

He said as of yesterday, some of the teams were heading with the ballot papers to Saidor station had to return due to strong winds.

Following this, a school ancillary staff was attacked by a drunken youth who entered the school premises.

School Deputy Principal Alfred Gem said while the police and the school administration were still investigating the break and enter incident, their staff member was beaten up by the drunkard over issues relating to money. Students tried to retaliate, but the drunk was escorted out of the school area. Mr Gen said the intoxicated youth was later taken down to the police station.

The men were chasing a youth through the village when the grandmother came out to see what was happening outside.

The mother of five, identified as Kairen Kembe, was shocked when she saw a bush knife aimed at her head. She instinctively put up her hands to ward off the weapon, resulting in her hand getting severely slashed.

The encounter with the drunks happened less than a week after the woman lost her grandson after a motorised dingy overturned near Yalau beach, about five kilometres from their home.

The boy went missing following a dinghy mishap near Yalau beach, in Rai Coast district.

According to a youth from Bobidik, who was part of the search party, the child was still carrying his father’s bilum around his neck, containing his father’s wallet and bank card.

The other victim, a two-month-old baby, is still missing.

Local level government ward councilor, Mathias Korima, claims the people from Long Island have been conned by intending candidates in the past. He does not want history to repeat itself.

Long Island, which falls under ward 32 in Saidor LLG of Rai Coast district, is a very isolated island that shares common borders with the Tewae-Siassi electorate in Morobe.

Korima said both the Madang regional and Rai Coast Open intending candidates should instead, share with the people their experiences and achievements.

Mou Bilang, a community leader, says for far too long, Ganglau health clinic has not had permanent medical officers there to provide much-needed medical services to the people.

He alleges that one of the local community health workers (CHW), who is supposed to be stationed there, lives far from the clinic and arrives late to serve patients.

Chairman of Basamuk Cooperative Society Group, Tony Gaiyu, pointed this out recently.

Gaiyu also gave an illustration that the establishment of the  Basamuk Cocoa Cooperative Society Group (BCCSG) in the far-flung corner of Rai Coast district, in Madang Province, had greatly eased the burden of  many rural farmers. They can now access farm supplies and sell their cocoa produce right near their doorsteps.

“When you are better organised into groups and with your produce in big quantity, you have the bargaining power,” Gaiyu explained.

The new weather station which is now operational can monitor and measure wind direction, wind speed, rainfall and temperature. These are four important variables that compliment the complex Refinery Operations processing plants managed by Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) in Rai Coast district.

Ramu NiCo’s  Senior Environment Officer, Moses Yaa explained that the variables and other meteorological data are useful in both analytical and planning for major repair works 安定 major installations at the refinery plant.