Bulolo MP Sam Basil and his pet tree kangaroo at Sam’s home at 14-Mile outside Lae.
Sam is currently one of the youngest and most proactive members of the current Papua New Guinea Parliament and has won widespread admiration for what he has achieved for his Bulolo Electorate in little over a year.
The plight of Iruupi villagers in Western province, regarding their
They now see their Governor Bob Danaya and South Fly MP Sali Subam as having neglected them in the face of something that now threatens their whole livelihood.
Mr Subam declined to comment yesterday (Thursday) when contacted until he had received a detailed report from his officers in Daru about dead aquatic and plant life along the
He travelled to Daru yesterday and said he would be in a better position to comment on the matter after he was briefed by his officers.
“I have assisted the officers with logistical support to travel into the area,” Mr Subam said.
“However, I have not received the report from the testing team as yet.
“No comment until I get the report from them.”
However, Iruupi villager Thomas Ame, who travelled with government officers Frank Paliuous (health) and Stanley Jogo (fisheries) to Iruupi on Tuesday this week, said they merely skimmed the surface before returning to Daru instead of spending more time with the villagers.
He said they only interviewed two women who were returning from their garden and a man who had fallen sick after eating taro boiled with water from the
“The water is going from bad to worse and starting to affect all the people,” Mr Ame said from Daru.
“When you put your legs in the river, they start to itch and swell.
“All the food in the gardens beside the river is affected and there is no goodness in the food.
“The villagers are moving their gardens closer to the village.
“The villagers don’t have any food now and are only eating coconuts and sago.
“Children are hungry
“Those who can afford to, take fresh meat to Daru, sell it, and use the money to buy food from the shops and take back to Iruupi to feed their children.
“Villagers are also complaining about feeling sick after drinking water from the smaller creeks and are now only drinking rain water
Last month, the villagers raised concerns in a letter to Dr Danaya, Mr Subam, and the Departments of Petroleum and Energy and Environment and Conservation about the increasing number of dead fish being found in the
At the beginning of this month, after no response from relevant government authorities, the villagers again complained about dead fish and crocodiles, as well as birds, pigs, deer and wallaby.
Iruupi, south of Daru near the Torres Strait, is closer to
Captions: 1. Bulolo MP Sam Basil checking out the progress of work along the
The Buang people of Morobe province will have a timely present for Christmas.
They will be able to use the new-look Gabensis-Muniau (Buang) Road after suffering for many years because of its neglected state.
They have had to travel all the way to Mumeng and then turn off to Buang instead of having the luxury of this shortcut.
Gabensis is a typical
Reconstruction of the road comes under the Bulolo District Road Maintenance Programme (BDRMP) initiated by Bulolo MP Sam Basil.
“We plan to have this short cut road reconstructed before Christmas so that Buang people from all over the country can go home and spend time with their families,” he says.
Team B of the BDRMP is doing the shortcut from Gabensis to Buang, working on gravelling and culverting at the same time.
It has been working on the road for the last three works and expects to complete the task in another three weeks,
“If a private contractor was doing the job of Team B, it would cost us K180, 000 a month, however, we’re doing this at K45, 000 a month,” Mr Basil said.
“I’m talking about working eight hours a day, seven days a week.”
He said the area also had huge untapped potential for tourism.
There is a breathtaking view of the
White cockatoos, hornbills and other birds abound in this forest area surrounded by picturesque hills, rivers and creeks,
“I plan to set up a lookout at this point, together with a barbeque area, where families from Lae can come and relax and have a good time at the weekend,” Mr Basil says.
“There is so much potential for tourism in this area.”
The notorious
Its fast flowing torrents are infamous for claiming lives, burying the one-thriving Mumeng government station under tonnes of rubble as well as sweeping away motor vehicles.
This is becoming a major concern, especially with the boom in mining and prospecting in the area, as well as to the livelihood of the thousands of people of the Bulolo and Menyamya electorates.
The solution is a bypass road through Buang, on to the gold fields of Bulolo and Wau, and further on to Menyamya,
Bulolo MP Sam Basil asked the National Government for funding in the recent Supplementary Budget for this bypass road and K9m of an estimated total cost of K27m has been earmarked for this purpose.
“I’m under a lot of pressure from
Landowners from five villages – Kumalu 1 and 2, Mumengtain, Bangalum and Pamelambus – have formed a company called Kumubapa Holdings to tender for the building of the road in a joint venture with Filipino company Benje.
They have met with regional works manager Brian Alois and provincial works manager Nickson Laime in Lae, to push for the release of the funds so that they could start work.
“The landowners from five villages have joined together and formed a company called Kumubapa Holdings,” Mr Basil said.
“Benje will inject the professional component and the landowners will provide the rest.
“I want active landowner participation in all projects in my electorate.
“Apart from this, there are other opportunities in Bulolo for such work, which I want the landowners to participate in.”
Mr Basil said the proposed road would run up to and cross the
Drilling at a new site called Antelope-1 commenced Wednesday this week.
The rig, support equipment and buildings have been air lifted into the area during the past month.
The site is now fully operational as a drilling project to appraise the Antelope Field. .
A team of about a hundred personnel including drilling specialists and geologists will carry out the complex drilling operation in the weeks ahead.
It is intended the drill bore will penetrate more than two thousand metres beneath the earth’s surface.
Antelope-1 is located just two-and-a-half kilometres from the successful Elk-4 discovery well where a major gas strike was made three months ago.
During tests, Elk-4 returned a gas flow rate of 105-million cubic feet per day, the largest gas flow rate of all time in
InterOil President Bill Jasper says the company also has high hopes for Antelope-1.
“We believe the Elk and the Antelope structures form part of the same subterranean gas reservoir”.
“Based on recent testing we believe the overall structure to be 15 kilometres long, five kilometres wide and more than 600 metres in thickness”, he said.
“So far the test results on Elk-4 have been in line with our high expectations.”
“We believe our discovery is one of significant potential”, Mr. Jasper said.
Mr. Jasper said recent appraisals provided “a strong positive” for InterOil’s planned Liquid Niugini Gas Project.
The proposed multi billion Kina construction project would be one of the largest investments ever made in
The plans involve the construction of a new LNG processing plant on land adjacent InterOil’s Port Moresby refinery and a pipeline to transport the gas from the Gulf Province.
For further in formation please contact
Susuve Laumaea
Senior Manager Media Relations InterOil Corporation
Ph: 321 7040
Email: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com
Above are pictures of beautiful and scenic Mumeng Local Level Government (LLG) area in Bulololo District,
The pictures were taken during my visit there last week.
It certainly is one of the scenic and picturesque areas of
Bulolo MP Sam Basil is doing a lot to bring about development to his electorate and you can see the difference everywhere you go.
Captions: 1. Dr Clement Malau officially opens the Goroka hospital’s business resource centre; 2. Robert Schilt IT Manager, Dr Joseph Apa CEO and Dr Clement Malau
This was a momentous occasion for hospital staff, management and the board and a unique opportunity for the hospital to share about its IT achievements over the past 18 months and also how an Open Source Software (OSS) approach can provide long term tangible benefits and savings to the national health system and other hospitals within
The opening of the centre has been 12 months in the planning and finally it happened.
The Health Secretary, CEO’s from each of the Highlands hospitals, senior staff from the Health Department, AUSAID advisors and
Hospital chief executive officer Dr Joseph Apa told of how it had saved thousands of kina in computer software costs and should be an example to other hospitals in the country.
He said the decision by the hospital to adopt
“Open Source Operating Systems such as Linux Ubuntu are essentially immune to viruses,” Dr Apa said.
“The hospital has not had one virus incident in the last 12 months.
“What’s really ironic is that none of our Open Source PC’s and laptops actually runs any form of virus protection software.
“By going down the Open Source path we have essentially bypassed the prohibitive costs associated with licensed software such as Microsoft Office and Virus Protection.
“This in itself has saved
“We have now started the process of investigating Open Source options for an electronic patient records System, something that all hospitals around PNG are desperately needing, and I am amazed at the rich collection of quality Health Information System (HIS) related applications currently available through the Open Source Community.
“The ultimate objective in introducing electronic information systems at
“This goal will only be achieved through the provision of efficient, reliable and integrated Health Information Systems that are cost effective.”
Information Technology manager Robert Schilt emphasised the IT achievements at the hospital, many a first for a public hospital in PNG:
• Deployment of 60 PC’s and laptops including a Local Area Network (first hospital in PNG);
• Establishment of a business resource centre (first hospital in PNG);
• Setting of a training room and course(s) with 100-plus staff trained (first hospital in PNG)
• Monthly meetings of an IM&T Steering Committee (first hospital in PNG)
• Hospital website and online health forum www.ggh.org.pg (first hospital in PNG)
• Access to the Hinari subscription (first hospital in PNG)
• Development of an organisational Intranet (first hospital in PNG)
• Recent media coverage (first hospital in PNG).
The IT team at
