The cries of Kopiago are being heard
By GIDEON JACK KARALI
This is a story that needs to be told. According to the World Health Organization report ‘ Country cooperation strategy at a glance’ published in 2013 stated that 88% of Papua New Guinea’s population still lives in the rural settings. The report is also quite alarming as it further emphasized that PNG is ranked 156th out of the 186 countries of the United Nations Human Development index.
When I read the report, I was astonished as the report turned my mind into one of the least developed districts in the country called Lake Kopiago sometimes regarded as Mula Range or Mula flavour, a description that best fits the people of Lake Kopiago in the Hela Province. The report was quite interesting as it eluded me to the struggles and the pain that the rural people in most part of the country face in the name of service delivery.
Lake Kopiago is regarded as one of the least developed districts in the Hela Province. The district has a total population of approximately thirty thousand people most of them are farmers, fisherman and hunters. Discovered by the early explorers in the late 1950s, the first patrol post was set up in 1964. Within the vicinity of the patrol post was a low constructed district office and not far was the district aid post, recently in the late 1980s upgraded its status to a health centre without much improvements to its purpose of existence. The Health centre has two buildings erected back then now still stands with very minimal improvements at all.
Travelling by road to Lake Kopiago from the recently approved Hela Province which houses 80 percent of the much talked about LNG Project is such a nightmare. Sometimes described, as the road to hell is the experience to most of the road users nowadays. Steep terrains, muddy gorges with two log bridges fits in the description to the road itself even though the road is mapped as the last frontier to the famous Highlands highway. This itself adds sore to the chores of development as the high level of fragmentation is visible between the three arms of government in the name of service delivery and the district remains the same even after 39 years of independence.
The WHO report also stated that the leading health problems are communicable diseases such as malaria, TB, diarrheal diseases, HIV, infant mortality are a major cause of morbidity and deaths. Lake Kopiago is no exception and contributes a significant number to the country’s tally. Mothers give birth in the night with candlelight with very little assistance from a health worker while the husbands pray to the good Lord for strength to endure such a pain. Subsistence farmers die young while working due to respiratory diseases and TB while plouging in the garden to make ends meet for their children’s school fees. This is some story that needs to be told. Elections have come and go, the people of Lake Kopiago were promised by candidates and the high level government delegation that service delivery will reach the electorate, the road will be built and the health centre will be refurbished, nothing has transpired. I have been an advocate of service delivery in my electorate and does contribute in a little way using the mass media to preach about the lack of services reaching my people and this write up is not a political gimmick. I did this to educate our people on some of the good work that some of our leaders are doing that is worth mentioning without any political affiliations or whatsoever kind. I read with interest about the recent visit to Lake Kopiago Health Centre the local Member for Koroba Lake Kopiago Philip Undialu initiated which saw Department of Health heavies led by Deputy Secretary of Health department Dr. Paison Dakulala and his team. This fascinated me as I have actually written project submissions under the various project development grants requesting funding for the hospital rehabilitation over time but nil funding have been received. Attention have been given to other landowners as the government’s attention shifted. I am sure my proposals are becoming cockroach’s shitting ground somewhere in Waigani now but thank the good Lord for the nature and the continuous blessing to my people, the trip was worth it.
Dr. Dakulala was accompanied by his department’s facility manager Ambrose Kwaramb and Mr. Undialu brought some of his local level government council presidents with him to show them the site of the deteriorating state of the Lake Kopiago health centre. Unlike Tari and Koroba districts where the team had to travel by road and visit the place, the trip to Lake Kopiago was in a chopper due to the poor road conditions. People turned out in numbers to receive the delegation, as this was the first of its kind a parliamentarian has brought in a heavy delegation from the health department itself to assess the current condition of the forgotten health centre. The team especially Dr. Dakulala could not believe what they had seen.
The health center ward, rotting away in tatters, leaking roof, shortage of medicine and lack of professionals on the ground to attend to the people are only the tip of the iceberg. The health center itself is the center that serves the population of the district and its quite daunting especially in the night as the only power house that assembles the district generator has fallen apart some 10 years ago due to non-repairs. Unlike in the past where these sorts of visits are celebrated with feasting and pig killing, Mr. Undialu opted for a quite reception as in fact everyone was caught by surprise.
I am sure Dr. Dakulala will agree with me to the calamity of the health services that the people of Lake Kopiago face with reference to service delivery. The local MP Philip Undialu has done the right thing by bringing the government leaders to assess and get first hand information of how the level of health services are reaching his people. Funds are being sourced by people and organizations through various government funding to rehabilitate the health centre but if there is any report that can have weight and serve the purpose of alleviating the standards of the people in essential health service delivery is what Mr. Undialu has already started by allowing leaders to see for themselves without hearing from others in the corridors of Waigani.
I wish to do another write up in the near future mentioning the improvements that the people of Lake Kopiago have faced as some infrastructural development has taken shape especially in the deteriorating health sector and I am sure its not too long. I am sure you have your own story too where infrastructural development have not been visible to reach out to the very people and place you call family and home and this is my story.
When I read the report, I was astonished as the report turned my mind into one of the least developed districts in the country called Lake Kopiago sometimes regarded as Mula Range or Mula flavour, a description that best fits the people of Lake Kopiago in the Hela Province. The report was quite interesting as it eluded me to the struggles and the pain that the rural people in most part of the country face in the name of service delivery.
Lake Kopiago is regarded as one of the least developed districts in the Hela Province. The district has a total population of approximately thirty thousand people most of them are farmers, fisherman and hunters. Discovered by the early explorers in the late 1950s, the first patrol post was set up in 1964. Within the vicinity of the patrol post was a low constructed district office and not far was the district aid post, recently in the late 1980s upgraded its status to a health centre without much improvements to its purpose of existence. The Health centre has two buildings erected back then now still stands with very minimal improvements at all.
Travelling by road to Lake Kopiago from the recently approved Hela Province which houses 80 percent of the much talked about LNG Project is such a nightmare. Sometimes described, as the road to hell is the experience to most of the road users nowadays. Steep terrains, muddy gorges with two log bridges fits in the description to the road itself even though the road is mapped as the last frontier to the famous Highlands highway. This itself adds sore to the chores of development as the high level of fragmentation is visible between the three arms of government in the name of service delivery and the district remains the same even after 39 years of independence.
The WHO report also stated that the leading health problems are communicable diseases such as malaria, TB, diarrheal diseases, HIV, infant mortality are a major cause of morbidity and deaths. Lake Kopiago is no exception and contributes a significant number to the country’s tally. Mothers give birth in the night with candlelight with very little assistance from a health worker while the husbands pray to the good Lord for strength to endure such a pain. Subsistence farmers die young while working due to respiratory diseases and TB while plouging in the garden to make ends meet for their children’s school fees. This is some story that needs to be told. Elections have come and go, the people of Lake Kopiago were promised by candidates and the high level government delegation that service delivery will reach the electorate, the road will be built and the health centre will be refurbished, nothing has transpired. I have been an advocate of service delivery in my electorate and does contribute in a little way using the mass media to preach about the lack of services reaching my people and this write up is not a political gimmick. I did this to educate our people on some of the good work that some of our leaders are doing that is worth mentioning without any political affiliations or whatsoever kind. I read with interest about the recent visit to Lake Kopiago Health Centre the local Member for Koroba Lake Kopiago Philip Undialu initiated which saw Department of Health heavies led by Deputy Secretary of Health department Dr. Paison Dakulala and his team. This fascinated me as I have actually written project submissions under the various project development grants requesting funding for the hospital rehabilitation over time but nil funding have been received. Attention have been given to other landowners as the government’s attention shifted. I am sure my proposals are becoming cockroach’s shitting ground somewhere in Waigani now but thank the good Lord for the nature and the continuous blessing to my people, the trip was worth it.
Dr. Dakulala was accompanied by his department’s facility manager Ambrose Kwaramb and Mr. Undialu brought some of his local level government council presidents with him to show them the site of the deteriorating state of the Lake Kopiago health centre. Unlike Tari and Koroba districts where the team had to travel by road and visit the place, the trip to Lake Kopiago was in a chopper due to the poor road conditions. People turned out in numbers to receive the delegation, as this was the first of its kind a parliamentarian has brought in a heavy delegation from the health department itself to assess the current condition of the forgotten health centre. The team especially Dr. Dakulala could not believe what they had seen.
The health center ward, rotting away in tatters, leaking roof, shortage of medicine and lack of professionals on the ground to attend to the people are only the tip of the iceberg. The health center itself is the center that serves the population of the district and its quite daunting especially in the night as the only power house that assembles the district generator has fallen apart some 10 years ago due to non-repairs. Unlike in the past where these sorts of visits are celebrated with feasting and pig killing, Mr. Undialu opted for a quite reception as in fact everyone was caught by surprise.
I am sure Dr. Dakulala will agree with me to the calamity of the health services that the people of Lake Kopiago face with reference to service delivery. The local MP Philip Undialu has done the right thing by bringing the government leaders to assess and get first hand information of how the level of health services are reaching his people. Funds are being sourced by people and organizations through various government funding to rehabilitate the health centre but if there is any report that can have weight and serve the purpose of alleviating the standards of the people in essential health service delivery is what Mr. Undialu has already started by allowing leaders to see for themselves without hearing from others in the corridors of Waigani.
I wish to do another write up in the near future mentioning the improvements that the people of Lake Kopiago have faced as some infrastructural development has taken shape especially in the deteriorating health sector and I am sure its not too long. I am sure you have your own story too where infrastructural development have not been visible to reach out to the very people and place you call family and home and this is my story.
