West Sepik province

Home to 3,000 residents, this community, a mere three-hour drive from the Vanimo township, has become a beacon of hope and economic resurgence.

For years, Osima Village grappled with isolation, its inhabitants relying on traditional hunting and gardening for sustenance. Accessing markets in Vanimo and neighboring Indonesia posed significant challenges due to unreliable transportation.

Jeffery Osi, a village elder, vividly recalls the arduous waits for transport, even for urgent medical needs.

Vanimo Secondary School stands out as the leading contributor to this remarkable success, with 328 students securing placements in various tertiary institutions.

With university admissions, 89 students from the province have been accepted into universities within Papua New Guinea, marking an academic achievement.

Further diversifying their educational paths, 59 students have earned spots in technical colleges, showcasing the breadth of opportunities pursued by the region's youth.

PNG Power Chief Executive Officer, Obed Batia denied recent claims that the Vanimo Power Station had caught fire yesterday morning destroying all its generators disrupting power supply in the township.

He said the news report is misleading and not true.

PNG Power switched-off the power station, following an unfortunate fire incident that started from the PNG Defence Force Forward Base, which shares the boundary with the power station and the fire quickly spread out to the power station yard.

Deputy Divisional Commander for Border Command, Chief Superintendent Sibron Papoto, said there were less or no reports of election-related incidents in the provinces, known as the border commands.
He said all these provinces have completed polling and are now into extraction of ballot boxes and into counting.
 
Wewak, Angoram, Wosera-Gawi and Ambunti-Drekikier are still in counting at their respective districts except for Ambunti-Drekikier, which is being counted in Maprik. Counting for the regional seat is at Moem Barracks, Wewak. 
 

Working in partnership with the Project Development Benefits (PDB) of the Forest Management Authority (FMA) programme, Pasi Fish Farm started in 2019 in the remote regions of Vanimo-Green in West Sepik Province.

The project which was meant for remote Hoguru Village and was initiated by the PDB in 2017-18, but with a lack of road access to the remote village, the project was stalled and the materials were left in the Pasi area.

The initial funding for that project was K250, 000.

The school was started in 2018 by the National Forest Authority’s Amanab Projects Development Benefits (PDB) Blocks 5,6, 1&2. It is run under the Catholic Education Agency.

The high school took in grades 9 and 10 and last year in 2021 they had 170 students.

Joseph Pintol the Principal said they are very fortunate to have the Amanab PDB 5,6, 1&2 for meeting 50% of the school fees for the students from the blocks. The school has not received any funding from the three government funding sources that was due to them in the last year.

Prime Minister James Marape recently opened the new West Sepik Provincial Administration building and announced other impact projects.

"I want to acknowledge the good leadership of Governor Honourable Tony Wouwou. He went ahead and didn’t wait for the national government but used the funds that we gave him for the province as internal revenue to erect a house for meeting the people of West Sepik,” PM Marape said.  

The Prime Minister also committed an additional K4 million from the National Government to prepare the building for use.

The projects include the US$200 million (K700 million) Vanimo Port, K200 million for the West Coast Highway linking Vanimo to Wewak, and K200 million for the Telefomin-Tabubil Road.
It was mentioned that work on Vanimo-Wewak and Tabubil-Telefomin highways had started with 40km more to reach Telefomin.