PNG highlands battle landslide aftermath
PNG highlands battle landslide aftermath
The PNG Government has sent a team to assess to extent of damage in the highlands. Thousands of people are battling the aftermath of landslides and flooding which hit PNG's highlands during the weekend. The landslides crushed houses and farms, leaving more than 2,000 people displaced.
Villagers walking past a fallen power pylon after about 150m piece of land moved downwards towards the Okuk Highway at Gera village, outside Kundiawa, Simbu province. Cracks can be seen everywhere as the provincial government yesterday declared the area ‘a disaster zone’. Police also appealed for immediate National Government action in fear of possible law and order problems.
Local member Joe Mek Teine has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program the Government should respond immediately and declare a state of emergency and restore traffic and services. I've requested the national Government and the Minister for Transport and the Office of National Disasters to immediately send people out, make an assessment, he said.
I've requested that a state of emergency be declared for the island's highway that will ensure that Government can move in and in the shortest possible time, they can ensure that the highway's back to normal. Up to five kilometres of the country's main road linking the highland's to the port city, Lae, has been damaged, causing long traffic delays across the region.
The damage and traffic jams are hampering trucking companies and mining operations while authorities attempt to repair broken power lines. It could be three weeks before the road is repaired. PNG's Transport Minister, Don Polye, has told Pacific Beat the damaged section of highway could be re-routed until the problem is fixed.
The road is completely impassable so it's really a big problem and I want immediate expert advice on it, he said. I want to send machines in to clear to road immediately or wait for the instability to stop and then start some work on it.
©abc
Foto ©The National
The PNG Government has sent a team to assess to extent of damage in the highlands. Thousands of people are battling the aftermath of landslides and flooding which hit PNG's highlands during the weekend. The landslides crushed houses and farms, leaving more than 2,000 people displaced.
Villagers walking past a fallen power pylon after about 150m piece of land moved downwards towards the Okuk Highway at Gera village, outside Kundiawa, Simbu province. Cracks can be seen everywhere as the provincial government yesterday declared the area ‘a disaster zone’. Police also appealed for immediate National Government action in fear of possible law and order problems.
Local member Joe Mek Teine has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program the Government should respond immediately and declare a state of emergency and restore traffic and services. I've requested the national Government and the Minister for Transport and the Office of National Disasters to immediately send people out, make an assessment, he said.
I've requested that a state of emergency be declared for the island's highway that will ensure that Government can move in and in the shortest possible time, they can ensure that the highway's back to normal. Up to five kilometres of the country's main road linking the highland's to the port city, Lae, has been damaged, causing long traffic delays across the region.
The damage and traffic jams are hampering trucking companies and mining operations while authorities attempt to repair broken power lines. It could be three weeks before the road is repaired. PNG's Transport Minister, Don Polye, has told Pacific Beat the damaged section of highway could be re-routed until the problem is fixed.
The road is completely impassable so it's really a big problem and I want immediate expert advice on it, he said. I want to send machines in to clear to road immediately or wait for the instability to stop and then start some work on it.
©abc
Foto ©The National
PNG hospitals 'critical' after highlands landslides
Major towns in Papua New Guinea's highlands are struggling to get supplies and fuel after a landslide cut off a road linking three provinces. For major hospitals in the highlands region say the situation is drastic. At Mount Hagen General Hospital in the Westland Highlands, all non-critical operations have been put on hold due to the lack of oxygen.
Hospital management described the situation as critical and said the landslide meant a shortage of drugs and generator fuel was imminent. The BOC gas depot in Hagen supplies oxygen for other hospitals in the region including Konjeeyowa, which has almost run out.
Hospitals are calling on emergency authorities to act swiftly to make sure the lives of critical patients are saved.
©abc
Major towns in Papua New Guinea's highlands are struggling to get supplies and fuel after a landslide cut off a road linking three provinces. For major hospitals in the highlands region say the situation is drastic. At Mount Hagen General Hospital in the Westland Highlands, all non-critical operations have been put on hold due to the lack of oxygen.
Hospital management described the situation as critical and said the landslide meant a shortage of drugs and generator fuel was imminent. The BOC gas depot in Hagen supplies oxygen for other hospitals in the region including Konjeeyowa, which has almost run out.
Hospitals are calling on emergency authorities to act swiftly to make sure the lives of critical patients are saved.
©abc
