Southern Highlands, very rich, yet the poorest.

PEKU PILIMBO

ONE of the richest province in Papua New Guinea is the Southern Highlands. It is a province that is meeting the oil supplies to several countries in the world after the Napanapa refinery was built. The province also boasts of having natural gas supplies after the recent discovery at Juha and Angore as well as others in the Western and Gulf provinces. The province will bring in billions of kina once production starts. But at the moment it is one of the poorest provinces when you look at the delivery of basic government services.

There are very few sealed roads, bridges, hospitals, doctors, nurses, teachers, agriculture advisers, vocational teachers, missionaries, and the list goes on. The new LNG project will need good roads, communication, electricity, hospitals with doctors and other necessary facilities that will enable the successful operation. The country earns much of its revenue from exports of all the oil that is produced from the province. The amount of money generated by the oil pipeline to Gulf Province and shipped to Napanapa oil refinery should have brought thousands of benefits to the province as well as the country.

The landowners get their benefits. The provincial government does the same along with the national government. But the problems still remain. The funds raised from these resources are not used to develop any community projects within the province. The resources come from Kutubu, Moran, Gobe, East and West Mananda and Hides gas. The funds generated so far have not been put to good use to help improve the peoples lives. The new discoveries at Angore and Juha plus others in Gulf and Western provinces will soon add more power to financially support people in the country. So far, Southern Highlands lacks special projects to improve the province.

Will it always remain poor while the rest of the country benefits? That is a question that needs to be answered by the current provincial politicians and public servants. There were reports in the media recently that there were several road blocks in Southern Highlands. The Ialibu and Imbongu people conducted a 35km road block between Walume and Agule River over compensation demands under the Highlands Highway Rehabilitation Program. Supplies to Mendi, Tari, Nipa, Poroma, Koroba, Lake Kopiago, Komo, Kutubu, Magarima, Komo and all the villages along the road suffered. The prices of basic food items increased as basic supplies failed to reach these towns. Passengers travelling from these towns to come to Mt Hagen and other urban centres to buy supplies did not make it as the road was blocked.

Those desperate ones had to walk the 35km to catch PMVs to travel to Mt Hagen at Walume junction. Hides Gas produces power and supplies electricity to the Porgera gold mine in Enga Province. The people of Tari, Komo, Koroba, Lake Kopiago and Magarima who are supposed to benefit are not supplied. The initial agreement signed between the developers, landowners, the provincial and National Government should have included the supply of electricity to these towns. The villages along the powerlines should benefit but that has not happened in the current case. The people continue to suffer without electricity while the mine benefits. The resource comes from the peoples land and they need to benefit.

At the moment the discovery of gas at Juha and Angore has attracted investors and they have signed agreements with the National and Provincial governments plus local landowners. The establishment and production of the gas will take place soon. During the initial negotiation in Kokopo, Port Moresby and at individual project sites with landowners, those who signed these agreements need to point out what had been missing from their past experiences. The National Government and provincial governments need to work together to get important projects off the ground as priority together with the benefits for people.

At the moment the Highlands Highway sealing stops at Walume, Imbongu district headquarters. The Kutubu, Moran, Gobe, Hides and currently Angore and Juha will be serviced by this highway. It has to start at Walume and run all the way to the end at Kopiago and Komo. This road will help people living along the roads to be productive. They will not wait for free handouts from politicians all the time like they are currently doing. The people will become gardeners, producing vegetable supplies to give to workers at Angore and Juha. They will also have access to travel to other towns to sell their produce. PNG Power Ltd contracted an individual in Hela Province to supply electricity to the people.

The resources come from the province and electricity needs to be a priority given to the people. The currently operating projects had not provided any services. That did not happen and people have suffered. What needs to be done now will be to see that vital services are provided. These services will help people improve their lives. All the elected leaders from the province need to work together. Governor Anderson Agiru has supported the new projects and was heavily involved in all the deals that the government and people signed. The other open MPs from the province are Francis Awesa (Imbongu), James Marabe (Tari-Pori), Philemon Embel (Nipa Kutubu), Peter ONeil (Ialibu Pangia), John Kekeno (Koroba-Lake Kopiago), James Lagea (Kagua-Erave), Pastor Issac Joseph (Mendi) and Francis Potape (Komo-Maragima). These leaders need to stand behind their people and negotiate with developers for basic services to be provided.

There are political differences but they must give priority to the people. Politics is a seasonal event. The services they provide will go down in the history of the province. The leaders elected to serve the people did not provide adequate services and bargain properly in the past. Former Governor Hami Yawari came up with the free education policy. He supplied the funding for all school supplies to be supplied but provincial education officials tasked with the duty of distributing school supplies did a poor job. The expectation to have a well educated population failed. The students did not perform well. This happened because the school supplies funded were not distributed to each school on time. At the same time the National Governments Highlands Highway Rehabilitation Program allocated funding for the highways sealing. The funds should be quickly disbursed and construction work must start.

The LNG project needs this road to transport its supply to the project site. For the multi-billion kina project to be successful, the road needs to be sealed. The same road will also service the Kutubu as well. The Southern Highlands leaders failed. The landowners failed as well. They funds that come in is spent in Port Moresby, Mt Hagen, Lae and other centres. The provincial capital Mendi has not had the experience of seeing any changes. The only change is the Agiru Centre in Mendi built by Anderson Agiru when he was the governor previously. The current projects will bring in funds. The province needs to become responsible by implementing projects that will benefit the people. The provincial authorities need to build Mendi. The landowners need to invest and build businesses around Mendi and not come and spend their money in Port Moresby or Mt Hagen. They need to put infrastructure in place for developments to take place.

If the current leaders do not come up with a good solution to service provision, the province will exist to serve the rest of PNG. The solution must start today and it will go down in the history of the province and country. We do not want other countries and people to say we produced the resources but did not get the benefits. We must show the rest of the world how we can use resources to improve our living standards.