Standing Hela Province A drive for health, wealth and ... · sail away with the historic first shipment of LNG and a week later was with the PM, Tari Pori MP James Marape, and Koroba

Standing Hela Province A drive for health, wealth and growth.

Changing Hela

December Qtr 2015, ISSUE No. 1

Development paradox

District in profile18 24 32

Agiru’s journey to First Gas

Reflection

Governor Agiru’s journey to First Gas

32

Private equity fund on the way page 4

LNG highway approved page 5

Cover Story page 6-8

Agriculture before oil & gas page 9

Targeting enemies of development page 10

Health service revived page 12

MSF calls for quality health care page 15

O’Neill is Hela’s ray of hope page 16

Hela development paradox page 18

Forging a new Hela page 22

District Profile - Koroba Lake Kopiago

page 24-28

Matiabe’s Roost page 30

Our journey to First Gas page 32

Drought & Frost strike Wage page 36

Oil search helps drought victims page 38

Hela Hydro page 39

TABLE OF CONTENT

AGRicultuRe beFoRe oil & GAS

25

Agriculture

Publisher: William BandoP.O. Box Tari, Hela Province

Produced by: Private Public Media Ltd. P.O. Box 1761, Vision City, NCD. [email protected]

Editor: Frank Senge Kolma

Graphics and layout: Franklin Kolma

For enquiries and/ or contributions, contact PPML on: P.O. Box 1761, Vision City, [email protected] on +(675) 7666 2937

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20

Finance

SoVeReiGN WeAltH FuND PASSeD

24

Finance

FeAtuRe

o’Neill Hela’s ray of hope

AMbuA loDGe FloWeRS

Cover picture: The iconic Koroba Lake Kopiago District Administration office lit up at night. Pic by Hon. Philip Undialu

I am tempted, in this first issue of Hela Dawn, to beat my chest and pat us all on the back.

And there is much cause for celebration. 2015 marks 41 years since the late Andrew Wabiria

moved for a separate Hela Province in the House of Assembly in 1974 and it is 40 years since Independence in 1975. Three years ago we realized Wabiria’s dream when Parliament passed the Hela and Jiwaka bills. Wabiria has sadly moved on but I know he celebrated with us in the spirit.

In 1998, a year after I was first elected to office as Governor of Southern Highlands, there were moves for a second access to the sea from Hela and Southern Highlands to the Gulf of Papua. Today, it is a reality with only 34 kilometers remaining to complete. A sea port in the Gulf is almost certain and next on the agenda.

In 2000 I fought bitterly when the National Government proposed piping PNG gas to Queensland, Australia. I wanted for Hela’s last mother pig, gas, to be killed onshore. That was realized in May 2008 with the signing of the PNG LNG Gas Agreement.

In July 2015 I stood beside Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill to see the LNG tanker, the Spirit of Hela, sail away with the historic first shipment of LNG and a week later was with the PM, Tari Pori MP James Marape, and Koroba Lake Kopiago MP Philip Undialu when Hela sailed into the majestic Tokyo Bay to deliver its cargo. It was truly a joyous moment.

As I key this, the first benefits of LNG is about to be brought on-shore.

These achievements are truely remarkable and a good cause for celebration. Yet now is not the time to rest on our laurels. There is much more to be done. With opportunities always come challenges; with blessings come curses. There is always that flip side of the coin. As individuals and as a nation we are not very good at guarding ourselves against the flipside of every golden opportunity.

So we have a new province. How do we develop it? What are the opportunities, what are the challenges and how do we tackle both?

How do we deter the negative impact of opening up our society to the outside? How do we differentiate between genuine investor and fly by night con-artist from the flood of inbound migration? How do we stem outbound migration of Hela talents, intelligentsia and money?

And what do we do with increased revenue from the LNG to grow the needs of today’s generation while keeping enough left over for future generations?

When you consider all these questions, you will agree with me that there is much more to be done by every person, big or small, important or unimportant, man or woman in every conceivable field to give our

total dedication to the task of building our province and our society up.

Here I name four social behaviors that have become a menace to our communities, our new province and our country. They are Alcohol, Drugs, Gambling and Guns/Tribal Fights.

For me, these time and money wasting and violent pastimes are the single most dangerous enemies of development and progress. They must be expunged from our midst if we are ever to create anything out of the opportunities that near paralyze us. These behaviors are related and feed upon each other.

Illiteracy and ignorance we can find cures for with time and education. Criminally deviant behavior we can safely lock away in maximum security jails with good policing, a robust judiciary and a functioning Corrective Institutions Service.

The social evils I speak off are growing on top of and despite education and time. They are the cancer upon our individual and corporate bodies that need urgent cauterizing or we will suffer a slow, withering, and painful death as a society and nation.

Finally, I wish to direct our attention away from the glamor of the LNG project back to our land.

The wealth that we have on top of the land in the things we can grow are limitless, and sustainable. Every individual can engage in farming with little knowledge or capital. My government is embarked on introducing a series of agro-industrial centers which will show case our agricultural prowess and prove that the sustainable billions, and therefore our future, is on our top soil.

My government will concentrate on delivering markets, knowledge and opportunities to develop our agriculture and combine that with supply of cheap electricity and a strong road transport infrastructure to help our people prosper. That is where we shall be spending a lot of our revenue for gas because when the gas runs out, a strong and vibrant agricultural sector will secure our future for posterity.

I thank our brother and our Prime Minister, the Rt Hon. Peter Paire O’Neill for all his support and for his first visit to Hela in September, 2015. With him in the cockpit, our Hela dreams and aspirations can travel in comfort and luxury and land safe, sound and on time.

May the Great Spirit, Datagaliwabe bless Hela.

Hon. ANDERSON PAWA AGIRU, MP

Hela Governor, Hon. Anderson Agiru, MP

The

3December Quarter 2015

FIRST WORD

Private equity fund on the way

The Hela Provincial Government is set to create a private equity fund to park

all its LNG revenue.Governor Anderson Agiru says the

equity fund would be similar to the Sovereign Wealth Fund but would be privately operated.

Agiru said: “The experience so far with resource development in Papua New Guinea is that there are revenue flows to the national government, the provincial government and the landowners but there is

nothing to show for them afterwards.“I do not want that repeated with

revenue for the LNG project.“For the provincial government I

intend to create the biggest private equity fund in PNG and the region. At least 50 per cent of revenue to the provincial government we will saved for the future generation in this fund. There are many examples like the the Norway fund and the Albertanian Fund of Canada and there

are many other private equity funds so we will learn from the mistakes

I intend to create the biggest private equity fund in PNG and the region.

Anderson Agiru Governor of Hela

Fina

nce

December Quarter 2015

4

of others and plan for the future.”Governor Agiru said the plans are

advanced for the establishment of the equity fund.

On current conservative estimates PNG is likely to receive K90 billion over the 30 year life of the LNG project, a third of which will go to provincial governments and land owners. Hela is likely to end up with a third of that portion which amounts to approximately K10 billion.

There are two lots of revenues. One is direct to the landowners in royalty and equity money which is often very difficult to control.

The second lot is the provincial government revenue which comes in the form of royalty as well as MOA or UBSA infrastructure projects and development levies funded directly by the national government through the development budget.

The Hela government’s 2013-2014 development grants are still stuck in the alternate dispute resolution in court. Some landowners have contested the provincial government’s claim on the funds.

He said revenues will be saved in the Hela equity fund will hold interest for the provincial government and the future generations in perpetuity.

“After the gas is gone we must be able to provide the capital venture resources that will be able to fund the programs that we fund during the peak period of gas production so that is the whole idea,” Agiru said.

“On our current economic modeling if we save 50 per cent of that we will realize what we are aiming for.”


Cabinet in November 2015 approved a contract worth

K87,428,803.46 to be awarded to Hela Roads Joint Venture to upgrade and seal the “missing link” road from Nogoli to Komo portion in Hela Province.

Announcing the decision Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said: “I am happy to announce this contract as this 21 kilometer stretch of highway is a very important high impact road that connects the Hides Gas Conditioning Plant of the PNG LNG project to the Komo International Airport and the Highlands Highway.

“It is one of the roads that the Hela people asked my Government to approve when I visited recently and I am pleased that Works & Implementation Minister Mr. Francis Awesa was quick off the mark to provide a Cabinet submission complete with legal and technical correctness certification as well as Central Supply and Tenders Board approval.

“Hela Roads Joint Venture has been selected from a shortlist of contractors. It has a existing contract on the ground

maintaining the Halimbu Junction to Komo Road.”

Direct and indirect employment in relation to this project is substantial and will benefit a lot of local contractors and individuals. As this is a Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contract, 50 per cent of the contract will be taken up by the local contracting industry by way of direct employment including contactors, consultants, project management staff, local construction equipment and plant and materials.

It is estimated the project will generate additional employment of 200 personal directly and indirectly.

Funding for the road will be through Development Levy, Infrastructure Development Grant of SHP/Hela provinces, and High Impact Project funding under the PNG LNG Gas Agreement.

This section of the Highlands Highway is considered as a High Impact Project.

The project scope includes clearing, grubbing, earth works and seal pavement, concrete and masonry structure road furniture

and plant and materials.The Hela Roads Joint Venture

is a 50/50 joint venture between Hides Gas Development Company (HGDC) and Shamrock Civil Engineering.

Property payment and relocation was to have been completed between September and December last year.

Project is scheduled to commence in January after completion of design and would take 20 months to complete.

Governor Anderson Agiru thanked Prime Minister Peter O’Neill for the Cabinet approvals on high impact infrastructure projects and urged for their immediate funding.

Mr. Agiru said the approvals for the upgrading and sealing of Nipa to Tari (Ambua) and Tari to Komo roads and the building for a new provincial hospital in Tari were very important fulfillment of overdue National Government commitments.

The Governor said 2016 was the only year when serious work can commence before the politics tainted decisions of election year in 2017.

Finally, that LNG highway

The PM performing the groundbreaking ceremony of the LNG highway during his first visit to Hela in September 2015.

Cove

r St

ory

HELA province is “las Papua” and “las hailans”.The title was previously held by

the Southern Highlands Province before Hela was made a province of its own three years ago.

Like the description suggests, it is at the end of the supply chain and at the end of the Highlands Highway and for nearly 40 years, it has been “las” in development and progress as well.

Since it was declared a province in 2012, however, Hela has been marching to a steady new beat of change, driven by sheer political will.

Like the dark of night being peeled back down the slopes of Toma Peak by the golden rays of the sun each morning, the dark veil of underdevelopment is being pushed back throughout the new province.

The welcome sounds of heavy equipment and jackhammers and the lighter banging of a thousand hammers carry through all hours of the day.

From the Wage regions to Hulia Benaria basin of Komo Magarima, through Tari town and Pori, Tagali and Haiyapuga of Tari Pori District and Pureni, Koroba township, North & South Koroba and Kopiago of Koroba Lake Kopiago district roads, bridges, health facilities and schools are being built or getting upgraded.

Businesses are slowly picking up on the excitement with guest houses, trade stores, and other services.

This change has not been brought by the Liquefied Natural Gas project as popular opinion might have it. The only infrastructure of note left by this

mega billion kina operation is the Komo International Airport and only because it needed the airport for its own construction efforts. The Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill declared the airport, the biggest in PNG, open to commercial aviation on his inaugural visit to Hela on September 24.

The National Government has only just awoken from a 40-year hibernation where resources allocation to Hela is concerned but the important thing is that it is awake and with one eye now firmly focused on Hela.

Aided by the National Government’s rural driven policies of district treasury roll-out, tuition fee free education subsidies, free health care, and the local level government, districts and provincial services improvement program funds, real, palpable,


6

HelaChanging


Construction of the new Hela Administration building.

Police staff houses at Tari.

tangible and quantifiable change is springing outwards into the most rural communities.

High Impact Infrastructure Projects (HIIP)and Infrastructure Development Grants (IDG) under the LNG project agreement are added resources to drive Hela’s socio-economic agenda.

Change is most obvious in the provincial and district headquarters.

Komo Magarima and Koroba Lake Kopiago districts have new impressive district headquarter buildings, court houses, a district treasury building, district hospitals and public servants houses complete with diesel generators to provide electricity.

While Finance Minister and Tari Pori MP James Marape has a large office complex in Tari town, he is planning to separate his district operations from the seat of provincial government in Tari by moving a few kilometers out of town to Tipinipu where plans are advanced for an impressive Tari district Headquarters complete with court house, police station and district hospital.

In Tari the town roads are being upgraded, widened and sealed, the three separate buildings to comprise the Provincial Headquarters are being constructed, and a Judicial staff village is under way . The Pai Police Barracks has been in operation for several years now and the Hawa Correctional Institutions Services has been fenced and the facility upgraded with K3 million obtained during the declaration of a Fighting Zone over parts of Hela in late 2014.

A poly-technical school is

rising out of the huge Urupu swamp courtesy of Hon. Marape.

Kenmore Steel has a warehouse and factory building established where it is expected to manufacture fabricated steel materials needed by the construction industry.

The changes taking place could be faster, some argue, and all agree that it is overdue by at least 30 years but, truth be told, it is finally here and with a sweet vengeance.

Hela has had producing oil reservoirs at Juha, Mananda and Gobe throughout the 1990s and 2000s and since June 2014 is host to Papua New Guinea’s first Liquefied Natural Gas project.

Hela Governor Anderson Agiru calls his province the “geo-economic cockpit of Papua New Guinea”.

Despite that the non-existence of industries, commerce, trade, investment and basic services tell a sad tale of neglect and abuse.

Hela’s social, economic, development and millennium development goals indicators are judged the lowest in the entire country according to a provincial profiling survey by the National Research Institute.

Finance Minister James Marape describes this sad state of affairs as Hela’s development paradox: a region contributing so much for the sustenance of a nation but which lacks so much more for its own upkeep.

With the dawn of a new province the development pace has picked up and things are changing – for the better.

The change is evident at the top, with the leadership. While

recognizing the shortcomings of the districts, Governor Agiru is adamant that these setbacks and the debilitating mentality giving rise to them are a thing of the past.

Governor Agiru and members Marape, Undialu and Potape are united in their resolve to drive development in the new province, deciding that in the important matter of development of Hela, national politics and parochial interests must take a back seat.

Agiru, Marape and Undialu toured Hela during Independence Day in 2014 to jointly announce projects, assuring at every stop that development for Hela is paramount. All the MPs are often to be found supporting each other or attending each other’s projects launching.

This neat cooperative arrangement was sorely put to the test in December 2015 when Member Potape purportedly wrestled the seat of Governor away from Agiru. The National Court has vested the powers back in Agiru in the interim while the substantive matter is due to come up in court in mid-February.

The public service machinery is no less dedicated and committed, albeit with its normal shortcomings. Administrator William Bando has been acting ever since the Province was created, only to be confirmed most recently. Yet he has held it all together and provided leadership and guidance.

Tari Hospital, which has just recently been elevated to Hela Provincial Hospital with its own board was held together by an Acting CEO in Dr Hamiya Hewali and volunteers from the Medecins

Deve

lopm

ent


8

San Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders. The elevation to provincial hospital status is a story of stoic determination in the face of tremendous difficulties, a tale related in another part of this magazine.

The Highlands Highway between Mendi, Tari, Koroba and Lake Kopiago has been approved for upgrading and sealing by Cabinet. Approved also is the LNG highway between Nogoli LNG conditioning plant and Komo and onward to provincial capital Tari.

Apart from the main Highlands Highway, a second access road is being sunk from Maria in Koroba through Homburu back to Tari. The work is jointly funded by the provincial government and members Marape and Undialu.

Another access has been opened up with the Marape Unity Bridge over the river Tagali and with Member Undialu and the provincial government driving an access road through Pureni to connect Koroba Secondary School.

Undialu also announced another access road from Koroba through Hides 4 in Komo Magarima to Tari. Another highway is being constructed to connect Koroba to Lake Kopiago.

The HPG has paid K2.5 m for a road from Pugura to Egele, total cost of which will be K12 m; and K2 million out of a possible K15 million for a road and bridge from Koroba to Pureni and K5.5 m out of Provincial Services Improvement Program to fund a K9 million Hydro project in Koroba.

Electricity supply to Hela is now a reality after years of neglect. In 2007 a generator was provided for Tari and in September 2015 the Prime Minister witnessed the signing of an MOU between PNG Power and Oil Search to use gas from the LNG production to supply electricity throughout Hela and even back down the highlands grid.

Power lines from the highlands power grid has already reach the border of Southern Highlands and Hela and power poles and lines are already crisscrossing Tari town area in anticipation all that is happening.

In the long term, plans are in the pipeline for electricity to be produced by a massive hydro power plant currently undergoing project documentation and finalization by the Israeli El Al group.

District hospitals have been built at Margarima, Komo, Waria and Koroba, but two (Komo &Waria) lack equipment and staff and for the present are serving as health centers. Two doctors and a dentist have been allocated each of the three district with Tari Pori’s medical needs currently being served by the Tari based Level 5 Hela Provincial Hospital. Over 380 positions in the health sector have been advertised and filled.

Three high schools have been upgraded to secondary schools to serve each of the three districts. They are Koroba Secondary, Tari Secondary and Margarima Secondary. A new high school at Komo is being constructed and Finance Minister James Marape is

building a poly-technical college by dredging the huge Urupu swamp and a Hela Technical High School.

All these developments are being forced by a cooperative effort rarely seen elsewhere and despite tremendous hardships such as the intermittent breakdowns in the supply chain because of the bad condition of the Highlands Highway.

This writer has witnessed much of the change on the ground and seen the personal commitment, dedication and effort by Governor Anderson Agiru, by open members James Marape, Philip Undialu and Francis Potape and by the public service to grow this special province which, by the Grace of God, is the financial and economic “cockpit of PNG”, as Governor Agiru puts it.

The only hurdle in the way of greater and speedier delivery are the incessant tribal fights, open use of high powered guns, excessive claims for compensation and failure to put the windfall benefits of oil and gas extraction to wiser use. While the government can be blamed for not honoring some commitments, the people’s own inability to save or use monies received wisely is a woeful and distressing tale.

All that said it suffices to conclude that the reward for all the contributions made by the Hela, through its labor force and its valuable resources, might have been delayed but it is here finally.

In the end, the children of Hela will look back on this period with satisfaction and claim it has been well worth the wait.

Changing Hela continued...

An excavator working on the “missing link” road between Koroba & Lake Kopiago. (inset) New teachers houses at Magarima Seconardy School.

Report Card

Agriculture,

Livestock &

Fisheries


JUST a few weeks after the first LNG cargo was shipped out of

PNG on the Spirit of Hela tanker and while the country’s focus was still on the project and the riches it will bring in, the entire Hela parliamentary leadership was impressing upon its people to turn away from the glitter of oil and gas to till the soil for long term sustainable security and well being.

Governor Agiru said in the long run the riches to be found on the top soil was far richer, less capital intensive to develop, renewable and sustainable than the instant riches derived from extracting oil and gas.

Said Agiru: “LNG is done, delivered, dusted. Now the only challenge that is left in LNG is to develop a petrochemical industry that will provide secondary businesses throughout PNG and to add employment and so on but what will put money in the pockets of our people is agriculture.

“Agriculture and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are the most important challenges I want to tackle after LNG. Agriculture and SMEs do not make headlines, I know, but neither do oxygen nor water and they sustain our lives.”

With the assistance of the Israel

El Al Group, Hela is embarking on the development of an ambitious agro-industrial centers project that should see one in each of the 13 districts when the program is fully rolled out.

For a start, there is an agro-industrial center in each of the three electorates - at Koroba station for Koroba Lake Kopiago, at Piwa in Tari Pori and at the Hulia valley in Komo Magarima.

The Koroba agro-industrial center, developed at the cost of K20 million, took its first batch of 11,000 chicken hatchings from New Zealand in 2014 and is now producing 10,000 eggs per day.

Member Philip Undialu said: “We have readymade markets here in Hela. We just have to produce to supply to LNG project, ExxonMobil, Oil Search, Curtain Bros, Ambua lodge and other businesses in the province. We do not need to bring up eggs from Lae anymore.”

The Koroba center will produce day old hatchings as well to sell to the local population and buy back eggs for sale to the wider market. Ten hectares of land is under cultivation to produce maize, tomato, capsicum, and other vegetables. Training is held at the center for local farmers

who will be supplied seedlings and in time their produce will be bought, stored and distributed through a wider market network domestically and internationally.

Governor Agiru said the Piwa Agro-Industrial Center in Tari Pori is being developed at the cost of K20 million also. This will be purpose built to raise dairy, poultry and piggery and will house its own abattoir.

The Hulia agro-industrial center will cost K50 million and include fish farming and cold storage as well as open field vegetable farming and coffee. Small holder stock feed will also be assembled there.

Elsewhere in Agriculture, Governor Agiru has allocated K1 million to Member Undialu for a cattle range in the Koroba district. Five hectares of land has been acquired at Tumbutu in Koroba and the district is in consultation with the Ramu Agri-Industries for 300 to 400 heads of breeder cattle to be transported into area.

The Member himself has allocated K200, 000 to provide a car and housing for two permanent employees of the Coffee Industry Corporation to be based in the province to help revive the dormant coffee industry.

Agriculture before oil & gas

Targeting enemies of development

HELA Governor Anderson Agiru sees tribal fights and guns, gambling, alcohol and drugs abuse as the

greatest enemies of his people and the biggest drag on development in the new province.

It has been an enduring ambition of his to rid his people of all these wasteful habits previously in the Southern Highlands Province where he was three time governor, and now in Hela. He has repeatedly said that these habits are the biggest obstacles to development in the country.

He banned alcohol for his entire term in the Southern Highlands and ensured lottery and poker machines were never introduced there. He is doing the same for Hela

Secu

rity


10


Security forces operations in Tari town.

where a liquor ban is in place and shortly he plans to place a ban on all forms of legalized gambling.

The son of a former mercenary warrior Agiru has a far harder time controlling the fighting instincts of his people. In November 2014, the Hela Provincial Assembly had to approve the declaration of a Fighting Zone and the callout of joint security forces operations to quell about 10 tribal conflicts raging in different parts of the province with great loss of lives and damage to property.

And drugs and alcohol are habits that are hard to purge completely from society and smugglers have gone to the extent of corrupting the security forces stationed in the province so that security forces members are accused of escorting the illicit cargoes through roadblocks with the result that there have been bloody clashes between defence and constabulary personal in the province and between the constabulary themselves on a number of occasions.

Yet these will not deter the man in the hot seat. As he mentions in the First Word, drugs, alcohol and tribal conflicts are a “menace” to society and must be “expunged from our midst”.

“Drugs and alcohol induce people into a state of dysfunctional, irrational morons who care for nothing and nobody except their continued zombie-like state. Gambling is the single biggest conduit where good

hard earned money is poured down the drain and no serious gambler is ever a winner.

“Tribal fights tear the heart and soul of a tribal community and leaves communities and individuals devoid of the will to prosper living , as it were, in constant fear of reprisals.

“These are social diseases that are eating the heart and soul out of communities everywhere in PNG. They are the biggest barrier to all the good efforts of governments, churches, non government organizations and the private sector to bring about positive change in the country.

‘The sooner we cauterize these cancers from our national, provincial and community bodies the faster the country will develop and the peace and harmony about which we talk about can arrive quicker on our doorsteps.

“In Hela I will not compromise on my resolve to fight these social diseases. I will not go down to an area that is engaged in tribal fights. I will not participate in conflict resolutions or rebuild destroyed government or community infrastructure. If that is how communities want to live, then that is their choice. I have far better and more urgent things to allocate time and resources towards.”

“You know my policy already,” he told a joint police and soldiersl parade in Tari during the Callout. “I will not waste time and resources on

tribal fights. If you want to destroy each other, do so but do not expect government to come to resolve your conflicts.

“With the resources we have we can move forward and establish ourselves as a model province,” he said. “Only our attitudes stand in the way of that and I will not come down and resolve your tribal fights when I have more positive issues on my plate.”

He also urged his people and security forces to work together to build a peaceful and harmonious society.

Agiru has declared that his government would commit resources to ensure that the current security forces manpower in the province remain constant and actually increases in the coming years.

He said he wanted the defence force contingent on call out duty to assist with protecting important infrastructure developments in the new province to remain in place.

He also called for the security forces and the local population to iron out their differences. In the past there has been some serious incidents involving a shooting and the burning of police housing in Tari and more recently killing of soldiers.

“Let us move forward to build a peaceful and harmonious society that is conducive to socio-economic development and progress,” Agiru said.

Every medical doctor in any PNG setting faces daunting

challenges but Hela’s Provincial Health Advisor and Acting Hela Provincial Hospital Chief Executive Officer Dr Hamiya Hewali faces a peculiar situation on top of that.

His might be the only hospital, outside of a war zone field hospital, were the daily and weekly list of trauma patients far outnumber ordinary medical illnesses.

Dr Hewali and a courageous group of Medicens Sans Frontiers doctors work through a steady stream of badly mutilated victims of tribal conflicts - dead, dying or living.

Dr Hewali says the hospital handles an astounding 15,000 trauma cases a year ranging from bruises and cuts to decapitated bodies.

Warriors in pursuit of their enemies do not respect church or medical grounds or personnel so it is a constant dilemma for the medical officers charged with caring for the wounded in Tari to be ever conscious of their own

and the safety of their patients. Since his engagement in

November 2011, Dr Hewali has had to put extra-ordinary security measures in place. He has constructed a K1 million steel pike fencing around the hospital to secure the premises and protect patients as well as workers.

Dr Hewali came to a hospital and a provincial health care system that was dilapidated and on its last legs. In 2011, Hela was the forgotten district of the Southern Highlands. Conflicts with the Nipa who are strategically placed on the highway between Hela and the Southern Highlands effectively brought Hela to its knees. Business houses shut their doors and services withered to a standstill.

There were no equipment, no adequate supply of medicines, one vehicle, a very few functioning staff and absenteeism was at an all time high. There was critical shortage of housing and no corporate plan.

This was a tough call for a young man who had had to turn down a Port Moresby

International Hospital offer to study in Bangalore, India and another offer to be Medical Officer in Charge at the Taurama Military Hospital.

He had agreed to take up the Acting/CEO offer at Tari Hospital on a whim following an animated session with other Hela professionals who said “Helas must stand Hela”, the new province. “They all returned to Port Moresby,” is all Dr Hewali can say about the others in the discussion.

He has stuck to his gun and the results, four years later, are startling. From one vehicle he has secured 15 which are distributed to all his district health services. They include seven new Toyota Landcruisers which were delivered in a small but significant ceremony in March, 2015. A vehicle each was received by Komo, Magarima, Pori, Tari, Koroba, the Hela Provincial Hospital and the Hela Health administration.

There is a corporate plan which is aligned with the Health Department’s 2011 to 2020 plan,

Report Card

Health

Services


12

Dr Hewali addressing the Prime Minister and his entourage during the PM’s first visit to Hela.

Health services revived

the Vision 2050, and the Strategic Development Plan 2030.

Recruitment and selections ended in March for 283 positions in the health sector in the province. All positions are funded. Two doctors and a dental officer each have been sent to Komo, Magarima, Koroba and Tari. The Hela Hospital was declared a Level 5 provincial hospital in 2014.

At the vehicle presentation in March, Dr Hewali made a bold call for Government to rethink its allocation of funds under the 2015 Budget for health services in Hela Province.

He said Hela as a new province ought to get the same amount or more than other provinces but experience has been the opposite three years running. The Hela General Hospital was allocated K100,000 in 2013, K300,000 in 2014 and in 2015 was allocated K600,000 while most other provincial hospitals around the country received K10 million.

“It is not fair,” he said. “Gerehu (St John’s Health Center) and Tari Hospital were both declared Level 5 Hospitals in 2014. Yet Gerehu received K9 million while

Tari received only K600,000.“We (Tari Hospital) are a 110

bed provincial referral hospital serving a population of 385,000. There are no other hospitals to support our work while Gerehu has Port Moresby General Hospital and many private run hospitals. “We cannot be ignored like this. We are not nobody. Our province now makes a huge contribution to the national budget through the LNG project.” His call has not fallen on deaf ears. In the 2016 budget Hela was allocated a whopping K14 m. Prime Minister Peter O’Neill promised a new provincial hospital was in the pipeline and a new provincial hospital board.

By December the Hela

Provincial Hospital Board was named and declared with Oil Search Manading Director Peter Botten as its chairman.

Dr Hewali has an unenviable job. The bulk of his population are rural based and beyond the reach of vehicular transport. Each year, since his engagement with Tari Hospital in 2011, he has had to make about K40,000 to K50,000 available to the third level airline MAF to evacuate the seriously ill and fly in medicine and medical teams to far flung areas like Mt Bosavi and Upper and Lower Wage regions.

Although things are finally beginning to look up Dr Hewali is sad to see the MSF team serve out their term come March 2016.

They have been a stabilizing factor when Hela was most in need of help and Dr Hewali feels their departure personally.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has assured Dr Hewali and the MSF team that the 200 member local support team to MSF would be merged into the health work force.

Dr Hewali is also calling on local MPs to support the health sector with their District Services Improvment Program funds.

To date Korobe Lake Kopiago MP Philip Undialu has responded with K100,000 for health care in his district. To that Dr Hewali has added a further K100,000 from his budget for the Koroba

Hospitals: Tari General Hospital & 3 district hospitals Health Centers: 37Aid Posts: 140Total Number of Doctors: 3 national, 4 xpatsTotal Number of Health Workers: 283 positions filledVehicles: 15

Biggest killers: Trauma from tribal fights, pneumonia

Health Vital Statistics


A lone nurse attends to a large number of patients - a daily occurance.

Health services revived

Kopiago district.

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14

Hospital board named

The new Hela Provincial Hospital will scontinue to offer quality

medical services to the people of Hela province, hospital board chairman and Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten pledged at the inauguration of his board at Tari in December.

The National Government announced the upgrading of the Tari Hospital to a level 5 Hela Provincial Hospital in 2014 and allocated for the first time K14 million in the 2016 budget. Previously, the hospital had only ever got about K1 million in the budget.

During a public launch of the board at the Hela Hospital grounds, Botten said the board would deliver quality health services.

Holding aloft a Tari billum (string bag) he had been presented on arrival, he said: “I know you have a custom that when you give a billum away you do not expect it to return empty. Well, I tell you that this will not return empty.”

He promised that he would ensure that Hela received the best health care available anywhere but that achieving that would not be an easy task nor would it fall to his board alone to seure such services.

He urged cooperation and support from all stakeholders, including the people.

He was reminded by various speakers that Oil Search had been operating in the province since the 1930s but there was little tangible evidence of its operations on the ground in Hela.

Botten and his board held their inaugural meeting, after the public launch, witnessed by thousands, who gathered in the Hela provincial capital Tari. Also in attendance was Health Secretary Dr Kase, Health Province Administrator William Bando, Komo Magarima MP Francis Potape, senior health department and Hela provincial government senior officials.

The establishment of the new board is timely with the departure of Médecins sans Frontières/ Doctors without Borders from Hela Province.

MSF’S head of Mission in PNG, Angelika Herb said activities in Tari started in September 2008; and after seven years of operations, the project has reached a level where MSF can hand over the supported services in Tari Provincial Hospital to the Provincial Health Authority.

MSF’s handover to the Provincial Health Authority will take place in stages, and culminate on March 31st, 2016 which will mark MSF’s Tari project closure. This date, according to Herb is in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding made between MSF, the National Department of Health and the provincial authorities. She said Tari hospital has been upgraded to a level 5 facility and now receives appropriate funds for operations and human resources, adding that national staff trained by MSF over the course of their operations in Tari have both the skills and

the experience necessary to continue providing Family Support Centre and surgical services that are now an integral part of the services of Tari Provincial Hospital.

“This momentum and progress marks the present period as the right moment for MSF’s exit as the organisation is, at its core, a medical humanitarian emergency organisation,’’ Herb said.

The board, chaired by Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten discussed a wide range of issues, ranging from staff recruitment and employment benefits to infrastructure requirements.

Among its first decision was the confirmation of Dr Hamiya Hewali as Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital.

The inauguration of the board was witnessed by Health Secretary Pascoe Kase and a team of senior officials from the Department of Health.

The Public Hospitals Act 1994 requires all Provincial Hospitals to be governed by a hospital board.

Hela Hospital Board Chairman Peter Botten (rt) takes his oath of office before Senior Magistrate Vincent Eralia.

Hela Provincial Hospital Board members include:Peter Botten – Chairman, MD Oil SearchRev. Olene Yawai – Deputy Chairman, Church repDr Goa Tau – Dept of Health repMr George Tagobe – Local business repMr Rodney Ingersoll – Business repMs Janet Koriama – Women repMs Doris Elape Anton – Hospital staff repMr Yawas Komiab – Community repMr Amox Max Libe – Community rep

A revolving team of dedicated international health care

professionals from Medecins Sans Frontieres have served the Hela people since 2008.

Their time comes sadly to an end in March 2016. By then the last of the team will have been recalled to continue their work in another part of the globe.

As would be expected the MSF volunteers have grown attached to the local community they have served so faithfully over the years and their local health counterparts who they have associated with since their engagement begin.

Head of Mission Angelika Herb appealed to the PNG Government to continue to have high level surgical and other health care services headed by experienced and dedicated professionals, including from

abroad if necessary.Dr Herb told a gathering at the

hospital to witness the swearing in of the Hela Provincial Hospital Board that it was critical to maintain services at a premium after her team departed next March.

She said: “After seven years of operations, the project has reached a level where MSF can hand over the supported services in Hela Provincial Hospital to the Provincial Health Authority.

“Tari hospital has been upgraded to a level 5 facility and now receives appropriate funds for operations and human resources. National staff trained by the MSF over the course of the MSF operations in Tari have both

the experience and the skills necessary to continue providing family support center and surgical services that are now an integral part of the services at the hospital.

“This momentum and progress marks the present period as the right moment for MSF’s exit as the organisation is, at its core, a medical humanitarian emergency organisation.”

Dr Herb said however that there would continue to be a need for expatriate surgeons and expatriate trained laboratory operators and urged that there be no hangups about engaging us to continue to provide premium medical services.

She also urged that the 100 plus local staff recruited and trained by MSF be incorporated into the local health structure.

Health Secretary Pascoe Kase assured that the staff would be incorporated in the structure, repeating a similar assurance from Prime Minister Peter O’Neill when he visited Hela in

S e p t e m e r , 2015.

MSF Mission Head, Dr Angelika Herb appeals for health standards to be maintained at a premium.

MSF calls for quality health care

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Kaprangi addressing the crowd as Papindo Group directors Alfred Yau (in glasses) and Marcellina Tjandra look on.

Wewak’s new

By HELEN TARAWA

THE Government has begun an independent audit to verify Puma Energy’s K4 billion im-port tax liability on crude oil import.

PNG Customs Chief Commissioner Ray Paul told The National yesterday that the au-dit which started this month was on the 10 per cent Goods and Services Tax (import GST).

The review of the GST is coordinated by the Treasury Department and involves Customs Services, the Internal Revenue Commission and Puma Energy.

“The audit is being carried out to review the records of PNG Customs and IRC and recon-cile against records of Puma Energy to verify the amount claimed as owed to the State by Puma Energy,” Paul said.

“There is no understanding or compromise with the legal requirements and processes of Customs. And Puma Energy, like any other business in the fuel and energy industry, is bound to adhere to the existing Customs pro-cesses and requirements.”

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill after being inducted into Hela Society with a chieftan head band and the famous Huli wig on his arrival on Wednesday in Tari. Story on Page 3. ― Picture Courtesy of Koroba-Lake Kopiago MP Philip Undialu

The Hela nation had waited a long time for Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to visit.The trip had been twice postponed

on rumours that there might be some disturbance by disgruntled landowners but when he did finally touch on September 23, 2015, at Tari Airport the province exploded in a dazzling display of colour, chant and dance.

Not a whimper of dissatisfaction by anybody was on display.

Only a week after the 40th anniversary of Independence and mindful of the sensitive issues at hand, the Prime Minister did not mince words upon arrival.

“I am not a man of many words,” he told the crowd at Andaija Oval after he was inducted as a Hela chieftan with the ceremonial headband and the trademark Huli Wig.

“Only three things I give you today. Roads, power and Tari Hospital. Believe me


16

O’Neill is Hela’s ray of hope

Anu wamene, kewane uku.Hamene areme ore.

“”- Governor Anderson Agiru


Part of the Hela crowd that greeted the Prime Minister on his visit.

when I tell you that we will deliver these projects. If you do not get them when I come in 2017, you have a right to hold me accountable.”

Without moving from the podium he witnessed the signing between Oil Search and PNG Power to use excess gas to supply electricity throughout Hela, SHP and back down the highlands grid to supplement Yonki Hydro powered electricity.

Before the year was up the Government had approved Mendi to Lake Kopiago portion of the Highlands Highway upgrade and sealing, the LNG road link between Komo and Tari and between Nogoli and Komo.

The Komo to Tari and Nongoli to Komo roads are UBSA commitments. The Komo to Tari road link is vital because it connects Tari to the Komo International Airport and the Nongoli to Komo road links the outside world to the PNG LNG Conditioning Plant.

Mr O’Neill told the people during his visit that the last 34 kilometer of

road to theGulf province would be completed by 2017.

During his visit the PM promised that the Hela Provincial Hospital Board would be appointed and by December the board headed by Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten had been named and held its first meeting. The Prime Minister also announced plans for a new hospital for Hela

He allayed fears that IDG grants and other monies had gone missing.

“All of your money is safe. It is in the Central Bank. Nobodyw ill touch it. When Judge(Ambang) Kandakasi identifies every landowner group, then money will be distributed in Tari. There’s no need for anybody to go to Port Moresby.

The Prime Minister later toured Tari town including the poly-tech college the Finance Minister and Tari Pori MP James Marape is building through draining of a swamp and the Hulia District Hospital and market built by Komo Magarima MP, Francis Potape.

The Prime Minister visited Koroba town the next day before he travelled to the Komo Airport which he opened on the day to domestic flights and departed for Port Moresby from the airport. The airport, built specifically to transport in LNG construction materials, is easily the largest in the country.

Governor Anderson Agiru, who was away for medical treatment in China when the PM visited said in a speech read during the visit: “My people and I have patiently waited for all the MOA, UBSA, LBBSA and ministerial commitments to be fulfilled. We have watched as our oil and gas continued to flow out with none of the commitments coming in. This is a first and I must give credit where it is due.

“In the forbidding overcast cloud cover over Tari Gap, I see a ray of hope sign through today that Hela’s development aspirations has found a willing and able partner. This ray of hope has a name and it is called Peter Paire O’Neill.”

A large mugshot of Finance Minister James Marape smiles down on

visitors, locals, school children and dignitaries from its commanding vantage point on the trunk of a clinky pine overlooking Andaiya Oval in Tari, the Provincial Headquarters of Hela Province.

The smile, you will note, never quite touches the eyes. There, I suspect, lies calculation, purpose and not a little determination if you know the man.

“Much remains to be done,” seems to punctuate every achievement story he relates about PNG and Hela.

“When I first got elected in 2007,

Tari was a sleepy lawless station in the back yards of Southern Highlands Province. Tari was prone to tribal fights and lawlessness. Road, bridges and buildings were not worked on since colonial days. Businesses closed shop after midday. There were only 3 flights by Air Niugini into Tari, one small junior high school in Tari and many dysfunctional and closed primary and elementary schools. It took hours to walk to Tari from outlaying areas like Itipu, Hangapo, Karida, Paijaka and Pori. There was no electricity, no telecommunication, no electricity, no bank (except an agency thankfully run by a private businessman in George Tagobe).

“Today change has taken place although not enough for my complete satisfaction. Amongst work done or is still progressing are new roads and bridges. You now take one hour to travel to Pori and Tugu. Infact, as far as I can remember PMVs never did turn around trips into Tugu, in Pori LLG, Paijaka and Karida in Tagali LLG, Piwa-Hangapo-Itipu and Hoyebia Kikita ring roads. They do so now.

“In Tari town, whilst more work is needed, the differences now are that we have a full serviced BSP banking services, restoration of electricity through a generator and soon power generated by excess gas from the

Tari-

Pori

Finance Minister and Tari Pori MP James Marape speaks on how the future looks bright inspite of the the paradoxes that have dogged it every step of the way..

Hela’s development paradox


18

FRANK SENGE KOLMA

COURTESY OF PRIVATE PUBLIC MEDIA


LNG reserves, business close after dusk, Emtv, Digicel and FM receptions are clear, there are daily Air Niugini and Airlines PNG flights, town roads are being sealed, the first of new office buildings are being erected, and a new national court is operational in Tari.

“We have two fully operational high schools which I’m pushing to be converted to secondary schools. We have more then 50 new houses build for CIS (Correctional Institutions Services) at Hawa and for police at Pai Barracks. These are but a few of the positive changes that have taken place in the last seven years. I am the first to admit much remains to be done.”

These are changes that he has wrought out of his own interventions but the Minister is fully aware of the wider development paradox that envelops his Hela.

Marape would be happier if at least three issues which are key on his list of priorities can be progressed early in the piece.

Foremost is reliable electricity supply which Marape says will unlock Hela’s full potential. Because of his Cabinet post he is unable to discuss projects in the offing but he intends to amend or change unfriendly agreements which have locked Hela out of benefiting from the harvesting of its own resource. Already, the Hela Provincial Government is in advanced discussions with an Israeli private venture to harness the hydro power potential of the mighty Tagali River in Hela to produce power. Power supplied will be in access of Hela’s needs and discussions are under way presently with PNG Power and

Porgera Gold Mine to take up some of the power.

An MOU has been signed with PNG Power and the LNG project to use any excess gas to generate electricity for the province.

Said Marape: “If I don’t deliver this one key thing (electricity), I will be forever in shame because I would assess that I have failed my people big time.

“The other election promise I made to my people in 2007 was to deliver

Hela Province and I thank God for impressing upon both Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare and the Hon. Peter O’Neill, who both as Prime Ministers, ensured this promise was kept.”

Secondly the Minister admits his priority is to seal the road in Tari town as well as Highlands Highway from the LNG project site in Komo to Tari Town, from Tari to Koroba and Kopiago and in the other direction from Tari to Mendi and Hagen.

His final focus rests as a model inside his modern Tari Pori District HQ office, the Tari Hospital. If he can deliver on this project, he is certain he has secured a good future for his people.

Minister Marape assures Hela and SHP and his Pori Tari people that

they will receive their just development entitlements as LNG hosts but cautions that such benefit streams must be applied wisely and in priority areas.

As he always says: “Good things comes to those who have the virtues of patience and selflessness. And when the good things do arrive, it remains long with those with the wisdom and foresight to invest wisely and save enough for the next generation.”

As with his smiling portrait belying his deeper held emotions, he is always upbeat, even in the face of enormous challenges.

“Hela, the dawn of your time is now,” Marape told Hela Dawn.

“We have an excellent national government who is working to liberate the country for development including Hela and SHP, we have experienced provincial leadership in Governor Agiru, you have experienced myself as cabinet minister. The combination is there for Hela to benefit from.

“I set my goals on those I mentioned above like electricity, highway sealing and hospital, everything else is a bonus for you. If I don’t deliver these big three, I would not complain if my people don’t re-elect me in 2017, because I will asses myself as having failed to deliver them essential impetus for development”.

“In the meantime I ask my people to assist development with good law and order, stop tribal fights.

“Hela can only get better from here. Hela political leaders like Governor Agiru and I have combined well so far. People must leave politics to election period and learn to work together like we have done.

“I see Hela’s future with optimism.”

“The province which supplies almost all of the country’s newest and richest export, natural gas, remains pathetically under-developed.”

Main highway near Tari been upgraded.

Ambua Lodge is poetry for the

soul. It gives rest and respite to

the weary traveler, security and

comfort to those harried and

harassed, peace and tranquility

to those who hunger for it, privacy

for those who seek it, something

new for the wandering adventurer

and a good time for all.

But weary traveler or serious

adventurers, while here take

time to note the silent beauty

that surrounds this place and

lends it its magic and majesty.

The whole place sings with it.

Even your phone’s camera can

help take home some of the

magic of this place as did Hela

Dawn writer and photographer,

Frank Senge Kolma’s LG Nexus.

“As I was capturing each flower,

an expression or name would

suggest itself and I noted it

down with a smile or a chuckle.

Observers must have thought

me crazy, smiling at plants.

Anyway, those are the names

used in this special pictorial

of the Flowers at Ambua.”

The Kluxon blast

Ambua Lodge flowers

Sun and Mooon

Good morning sir


20

The Heart

Gathering at Ambua

Do you not see?

Wrong place to be

Trumpet

Dew drops

Miss radiantThe stairs

Transition

Who is the fairest?

Purple rain

Majastic


Forging a

It is an honor to be first Provincial Administrator of a new province.

There are many challenges to do with issues of development, of governance, of our poor socio-economic indicators, and our law and order problems to name a few but these are not insurmountable so long as we move together.

There are many detractors who seek to

derail what we do but we will not waver in our determination to build and progress our Hela Province.

We have a good team in place. The political leadership of the province, in our Governor Anderson Agiru, Finance Minister and Tari Pori MP, James Marape, Koroba Lake Kopiago MP, Philip Undialu and Komo Margarima MP, Francis Potape,

WILLIAM BANDOPROVINICAL ADMINISTRATOR

COURTESY OF PRIVATE PUBLIC MEDIA

newHelaProv

inci

al A

dmin

istra

tion


22

Addressing health workers in March 2015 during presentation of 15 vehicles.

newHelais steadfast in its desire to build our province.

The Presidents of our 13 LLGs are cooperative and supportive. The churches are united behind us. The civil service machinery is finally severed from the Southern Highlands and functional, albeit with its normal problems.

Law and order problems are being managed. It gets better as more people access goods and services and see the means to improve their own welfare.

Education and health services are filtering out to the districts and these are increasing momentum on the back of the National Government’s rural oriented tuition fee free subsidies and free basic health care policies. We have established three secondary schools servicing each of the three districts and a new high school is just being built at Komo. Tari Hospital has been declared a Level 5 Provincial Hospital and district hospitals have been built and established with full staffing at Margarima and Koroba. Plans for a new provincial hospital are complete and entering ground breaking stage.

Roads, bridges and buildings infrastructure are going up in all the three districts. Major highway upgrade and sealing will link Komo and Koroba to Tari and onward to Margarima and further to Mendi and the rest of the highlands.

PNG Power was standing power transmission lines through Hela town and its vicinity, a most welcome sight indeed.

A crane hovers above where the future Hela provincial headquarters building will be, indicating to all that construction is under way.

Agro-industrial centers have been established at Koroba and Tari with others under way in Hulia, Komo

and Margarima. The Koroba facility is producing 10,000 eggs daily and supplying companies and institutions. This is policy working on the ground and is most encouraging. Seeing, after all, is believing.

These and many more projects and programs demonstrate that the new province is progressing slowly but steadily forward and in the right direction.

To their credit, unattached and un-appointed public servants demonstrated their commitment to the province by consolidating their efforts to chart a way forward by producing an Integrated 5 Year Development Plan 2013 - 2017. This Plan represents a significant milestone for the Hela people and serves as an important roadmap for addressing vertical and horizontal planning, growth and development over the lifetime of the plan and beyond.

Our Plan is aligned to the National Vision 2050, the 30 year PNG Development Strategic Plan and the Medium Term Development Plan.

Taking the national vision and plans as our guide, the Hela Provincial Government hinges its plan for development on eight pillars. These are:

1. Strategic Planning;2. Systems & Institutions;3. Human Development;4. Wealth Creation;5. Decentralization;6. Culture & Heritage;7. Law & Order; and8. Lands & Urbanization.These pillars are cross cutting

and complimentary. We have learnt from the mistakes of others and will not allow any development sector to develop in isolation and emerge as a white elephant with an unwieldy and

expensive bureaucracy.Our pillar number 5 might be

scoffed at in light of present capacity shortcomings but we shall progress determinately and we are aided in this by the recent passage into law for the establishment of district authorities. We will delegate as much power as possible and when capacity is established we will even relinquish section 32 authority to the districts and LLGs to plan, procure and remit for goods and services at that level for faster implementation and reporting.

To work our development pillars, the Hela Provincial Government is establishing 14 sectors to comprise the Provincial Government Administration Structure. Among others these sectors include Law & Justice, LNG Review, Standards and Compliance, Lands & Mines, Youth, Women and Religion.

With this as our yardstick and roadmap, we have a unique opportunity and challenge before us to bilaterally and multilaterally work with the National Government, sister provincial governments, donor countries and agencies, non-government organizations and corporate and individual citizens to forge a new direction for Hela. We want to do this while side-stepping the pitfalls that have befallen other administrations before us and taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves.

We are not naïve to think everything is going to be smooth sailing. There are a lot of challenges and many more will avail themselves but onward we shall forge and overcome them we will.

Rome was not built in a day and neither will Hela, but build it we shall and soon.


Koroba Lake Kopiago district covers the northern most end of

Hela Province and stretches over a land area of 5,272 square kilometres taking out half of Hela’s 10,600 square kilometers.

It borders East Sepik, Enga, Sandaun and Western provinces which influences provide for no less than nine dialects the district.

The district has a population of 69,500 with a density of just 12.2 persons per square kilometre indicating population is scattered sparsely across the electorate.

It is easily the biggest district in Hela, both in terms of population size and land acreage.

Nine languages are spoken in the district compared to about two each in Komo Magarima and Tari Pori districts. Generally, the district is split into Huli speaking people who comprise Koroba and a part of Pori and Duna speaking people who occupy the Lake Kopiago region. Where the district to be split in the future, and current Member Philip Undialu is an active promoter of this, it would be split along these two language groupings.

The district is divided into South Koroba Rural LLG, the Lake Kopiago Rural LLG, North Koroba Rural LLG and Awi Pori Rural LLG.

South Koroba LLG is the most populated with 20,700 people followed by Awi Pori (17,800), North Koroba (16,400), and Lake Kopiago (14,500).

There are no reliable statistics provided on the resources potential of this region although its agricultural potential is very much in evidence in the vast Tagari, Tumbudu, Lagaip and Strickland valleys.

The district is literally the end of the Highlands Highway at Lake Kopiago

This places the district at the end of the supply chain so that the Koroba Kopiago customer must pay for all the mark-ups along the entire supply chain. When the product arrives, often the price is placed well beyond affordability for the majority cash strapped population. In reverse, any Koroba Kopiago produce meant for the outside market attracts all the added costs along the way to its final destination.

This rather gloomy picture is about to change. The wind of change that is blowing through the country at gale force speed has reached Koroba Lake Kopiago district and swept it up in its path.

Spurred on by the National Government’s various rural-based policies to “reach-the-rural-areas-at-all-costs”, the face of development is finally showing creeping ever outwards from the center and has reached the “las distrik” of the “Las Hailans” or “las Papua” province, Hela.

Roads are beginning to snake their way into areas where there has been no vehicular transportation

before. Bridges are connecting remote communities. The Koroba township, the Koroba Secondary School and the Koroba District Hospital, and the Koroba to Kopiago Highway are undergoing major upgrading. A brand new sub-district hospital has been completed and is awaiting beds fitting. A new ambulance is on stand-by.

In Koroba town, the district headquarters is undergoing a major facelift. An impressive district office has just been completed and fitted out, awaiting opening in March 2016. In partnership with PNG Power, a 650 KVA generator has been installed to provide electriity to the town and the Koroba District Hospital has been renovated. Five public servants housing are being built and a State House has a commanding view of the town on the hill overlooking Koroba. A Youth Friendly stadium and hotel complex awaits construction. Together with the rebuilt district treasury building and the nearby El Al Group supported Koroba Agro-industrial Centre, Koroba town is bustling with activity.

Member Undialu has punched a road through Pureni across the Marape Unity bridge giving the district a second access to Tari Pori in addition to the main link through the Highlands Highway. A third access road and bridge are nearing completion from Maria to Homburu connecting the two


24

Koroba Lake Kopiago

Dist

rict P

rofil

e

KKHL’s 100 men camp at Kuparo, Koroba.

districts, a joint project by Members Undialu, Finance Minister and Tari Pori MP James Marape and Governor Anderson Agiru.

Mr Undialu has plans for another access over the mountains to the Hides Gas field to connect Koroba to Nogoli and the Komo highway.

It has not been an easy task. Because of the district’s remoteness no reputable contractor wanted to dmobilize to the district, of if they chose to, then they did so at a considerable cost which of course was passed on to the district Member Undialu learnt that fact the hard way when he spent almost K6 million on contractors for nil work on the ground.

This prompted Mr Undialu and his District Development Authority

to focus on capacity building as his priority number one over the three years since the elections in 2012.

Mr Undialu decided that the best way to drive development into the remotest parts of the district, he had to have an entity that he could trust and which could answer directly to the District Development Authority.

And so was born the Koroba Kopiago Holdings Ltd. From a small collection of earthmoving equipment and staff, the company has grown rapidly to now be worth almost K30 million. The manpower strength has grown to include both expatriate and national skilled labour force to undertake medium to large scale projects.

KKH has one of the biggest fleet

of earthmoving and construction equipment, a 100-men camp and can now to be found in every part of the district where construction work is required.

When Undialu stepped in as Member following the 2012 elections, he found a district with no ability to carry on from the previous administration. There was no five year development plan and no resources and assets. The district treasury was burnt down along with files. Some K12 to K15 million in road construction equipment went missing and were never recovered.

The Member spend two and a half years facing an election petition with his predecessor, Mr. John Kekeno. Undialu won the case finally in 2014. “That was a tremendous waste of time,” he says. “I regret that quality time has been spent on the case when I should have spent that time and resources delivering to my people.”

The Member had to liaise with the Hela Provincial Administration and the Department of Personnel Management

for experienced and qualified public servants to help build that capacity.

“ I accept the fact that this is a new province but there was leadership there and there should have been something to work on. DPM and Hela Administration tried their best but even that was not enough.

“I had to spend about K6 million to build up capacity and operations from ground zero. I had to spent my own money to buy new vehicles, new vehicles and build up the (district) office again.”

Mr Undialu sees the balance of his term concentrating on his core issues of capacity building, on transport infrastructure which is taking up the bulk of available resources and on supporting health and education infrastructure.


Koroba Lake Kopiago

District vital profileSouth Koroba Rural llG

lake Kopiago Rural llG

North Koroba Rural llG

Awi-Pori Rural llG

Koroba/lake Kopiago District

Total Pop. 20,700 14,500 16,400 17,800 69,500

District Hospitals 1

Health Centers 5 3 4 2 14

Airposts 7 10 10 9 36

Secondary /High Schoools 1 1 2

Technical/Vocational schools 2 2

Community/primary Schools 9 9 4 5 27

Roads (km) 60 213 57 330

Bridges 11 22 33

Air fields/strips 3 1 2 6

Polices stations 1 1 1 3

Village courts 1 7 7 15

Tari BSP Branch Manager Gabriel Ank (in green) and MP Undialu hand over trial BSP card processed at Koroba to locals.


26

Dist

rict P

rofil

e

Changing face of Koroba Lake Kopiago


Changing face of Koroba Lake Kopiago


28

When I was honored by the people of Koroba Lake Kopiago in 2012 to represent them in Parliament, I was looking

forward to continuing the efforts of developing our district.

What I little anticipated was that there would be absolutely nothing to go forward

with.A substantial amount of assets went missing

and the district office was set on fire. There was no five year development plan, no handover-takeover formality. I would literally start from ground zero.

Worse, I spent the next two years fighting an election petition in court.

I do not mention this here not to attract pity, or look for excuses or look to pass blame. Development can only came about if it is continuous regardless of who is in power. If every new leader has to start everything all over again, repeating the cycle every time leadership changes, we can achieve nothing.

The age of deliverance is here and we must grasp the opportunities facing us now because if we wait, we never will be able to move forward.

We will miss the development bus that is now on the roll throughout the nation.

The nation is in excellent hands. For the first time the provinces, the districts and even the LLGs are seeing real quantifiable goods and services flow like never before.

This deliberate policy intervention by the National Government led by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill through the Provincial Services Improvement program, the District Services Improvement program and the LLG Services Improvement program are monumental shifts in policy that will see development reach the rural areas of PNG. And it is working.

The policy takes its strategic and philosophical guidance from the Constitution’s National Goals and Directive Principles, the Eight Point Plan, the Vision 2050 and the Strategic Development Plan 2030. The five year medium term development plans, the provincial and districts integrated plans and even the annual budgets today dovetail into the overarching guiding principles. Together

they form a cohesive development flat form like never before to launch PNG forward.

This is the greatest achievement in our 40 years as a nation.

This is the bright side of development that I want my electorate and my people to be aware of. Development will not happen overnight but it is happening like never before. We are building roads and bridges linking our communities which never had any road links before. We are building schools and health facilities and business and agricultural opportunities.

We now have a second and third access road through Maria and through Pureni into Tari Pori. We are working on building an access road through Nogoli to Komo Magarima and the Kopiago Loop road will provide us a forth access road into Tari Pori.

Our district headquarters, our district hospital, staff housing, stadium and other developments are evidence of our seriousness right before your eyes. We will do more.

In agriculture, we have a producing agro-industrial center, the first in Hela and we will have our own cattle range. The Fugwa loop road is near completion and North and South Koroba and Lake Kopiago will be linked.

I urge my people must change their mindsets of old.

My LLG councillors and presidents will not miss the development bus by political power play. My District Development Authority will not miss the bus because it fails to draw down on available funds or by failing to implement approved and funded projects.

My pledge as Member for Koroba Lake Kopiago is that I will stop at nothing to ensure that all development funds and resources that are rightfully ours do make their way to the district.

I shall not have my people miss the development bus just because I failed to act.

Hon. Philip Undialu, MP

change is key Attitude

Dist

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By Hon. Philip Undialu, MP

Food for Thought


Sovereign Wealth Fund law passed

The PNG Parliament at its June 2015 session passed the long awaited

Sovereign Wealth Fund law with an overwhelming majority.

The law now provides for all of the Government’s revenues from mineral and hydrocarbon resources to be held by the SWF.

The explicit purpose for the use of funds held in the SWF are threefold: • Apartofthefundistobeheldfor

future generations;• Another part is to be invested in

key development infrastructure in the country; and

• A third part is to be invested inselected investments overseas.

A formula has been established as to how much to allocate to each of these and on their use.

Hela Governor Anderson Agiru has some misgivings on the law as passed. Indeed, he wrote to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill expressing his concern before the passage of the bill.

Agiru warned that the bill contained “dangerous clauses” that needed amending “as a matter of urgency”.

In the form it appeared there were serious dangers which needed to be removed but which were not and this may be used to the detriment of the country in future.

The Hela Governor said: “The SWF is one of the most important laws we are going to pass as the fund will control a fair size of the country’s future revenues. We must be extremely careful in where we park the fund, under whose control and where we choose to invest the fund to grow it.

“The problems that the Prime Minister personally encountered with the PNGSDP in recent times and the protracted case in Singapore to repatriate monies parked by the

program in that jurisdiction should alert us all to the dangers inherent in placing too much control of the SWF in the board and management and in granting the board and management carte blanche over how and where to invest those funds.

“The SWF bill before Parliament places almost total control of the fund in a six member non-elected board.

“While it is important to safeguard such funds from political interference, it is equally and perhaps more important that the people’s wealth must be protected by the laws of the country and be kept under close scrutiny of the people. Such authority is vested in the constitution and the laws of the land and in our institutions such as the National Executive Council and the Parliament.

“The law as presented seems to place a large chunk of the SWF, the investment portion, beyond the sanctity and protection of PNG laws and the NEC and Parliament.

“This must be corrected as a matter of urgency.”

Agiru said various parts of the law such as at Section 4 (2) and Section 6 (3) place the control, custody and management of the fund in the Board.

Section 7 (2) makes clear who has ultimate authority when it states: “The Minister and the National Executive Council or its agents shall not give directions to the Board, the fund manager, the custodian, the Secretariat, or any third party engaged by the Board, in relation to the operation of the Board, the investment strategy and the management of the Fund, except in accordance with this Organic Law.

Section 8 which provides for the Investment Mandate also provides so that: “(3) The Minister shall, after

consultation with the Board, issue to the Board a written investment mandate in respect of the investments of the Fund.”

Said Agiru: “It is rather curious that the Minister must consult with the board and not the other way around as would normally be expected and then issue back to the Board its own recommendations as to what the Investment Mandate and Investment Strategies ought to be.”

Another problem Governor Agiru raised is with regards to the expressed desire in the law to have all investments made in foreign assets and not within the nation.

He said: “We must not put all our investment in one basket and then place it overseas beyond our control and the scrutiny and protection of our laws.”

Agiru made the following recommendations:

1. It must be explicit in this law that the NEC and Parliament are the ultimate authorities which must have the final sanction on all funds held under the SWF including those earmarked for investment.

2. Overriding guidelines for the Investment Mandate must be written into the law so that it is not manipulated at the whim of the minister or the board.

3. The NEC and Parliament must be the final sanctioning bodies for investments in infrastructure in the country and a certain portion of the investment fund must be earmarked for this. This will create employment, grow the economy and give true meaning to the term “Sovereign Wealth”.

The law was passed without the Governor’s concerns being adequately addressed.

...but Agiru warns of serious flaws

Matiabe’s roost

A grade school dropout who worked his way up from miner to lodge owner has found that wealth is not how much money one has, but how comfortable, satified and happy one is.

If you find yourself in Tari and in need of accommodation, ask for Nenega Lodge.

It is walking distance from the Airport and the Government administrative offices and any local should point it out to you.

If they are unfamiliar with Nenega, they will most assuredly know Alex Matiabe, its owner.

Nenega is where Matiabe has come to rest after half a lifetime of wandering in search of fame and fortune.

It is uncertain whether he has found both fame and fortune but here finally, with his native Pajuro in his direct line of sight a few kilometers distant, the exciting activities of a new province in the making gathering pace and the contended buzz of his business and family members all around him, Matiabe is finally settled.

He loves pork and vegetables and both literally grow in his backyard.

Rich? For man like Matiabe, words such as rich and poor hold no place. For this man wealth is a measure of comfort, satisfaction and happiness. If he can note on life’s balance sheet a surplus of those attributes against all of life’s liabilities, he is happy and that can translate as rich.

If all could hold such an attitude in life, the world would most certainly be a far happier place to live in.

But surplus or deficit, a balance sheet must have a starting point somewhere and Matiabe’s started in the 1970s as a drop-dead grade 5 drop-out. Every mark on his balance sheet he has carefully marked with his own struggles, failures, and achievements. He is quick to note that fate contributed a not insubstantial share of good luck.

Self made people come in all forms.Some are extremely aggressive, having learnt along the

way the rules of the jungle that the weak are opt fair game for those who are stronger.

Others are the other way around. They have learnt also on life’s uneven road that humility and honesty more than anything else win more friends and therefore business and contacts in the long run.

FRANK SENGE KOLMAPRIVATE PUBLIC MEDIA LIMITED

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The writer and Mr Matiabe outside Nenega Lodge.

Nenega Lodge -

A fair many apply a mixture of aggression and humility as the situation warrants to achieve their ends.

But all self made people display one common trait. They have a hands-on approach to whatever it is they have turned into a success story –be it business, leisure or pleasure.

Alex Matiabe falls into the third category and yes, he is a hands-on man.

At Tari’s top town, Matiabe has turned a once run down place into a modern, if modest lodge, and is working his family and himself all hours of the day to ensure their dream is realised and sustained.

It is a beautiful location with a commanding view of his native Pajuro in the back where the Benaria Correctional Institutions Services is situated and the contested Mt Kare gold fields farther back in the distance. The lodge is only two minutes to the airport and what can now pass for Tari’s town center which commands the BSP bank, the court house, the town market, the site for the new provincial administrative headquarters and the impressive Tari Pori district center built by Finance Minister and local Tari Pori Member, James Marape.

Matiabe has named the lodge Nenega, which in Huli means “wantok” or a place of conversation.

It is not a name that suits the man himself. He is more a worker than a talker and does not have much time for small talk.

“The climate and people are conducive,” Matiabe says. “I like eating pork.”

One senses that his soft spoken and humble exterior hides a far harder inner core earned from many years as an underground and open drill blast miner in PNG’s Porgera and Tolukuma gold mines.

His life’s journey is torturous, guided in places by blind luck and in places by good judgment. But he has made a far better go of it than others and therefore is a good candidate to relate a little of how he has turned things around from that drop dead grade five drop out in the 1970s to now being a promising entrepreneur.

Matiabe attended Walidega ECPNG community school in 1972 at age 10 but dropped out of formal education in 1977 and drifted off like many other hopefuls to the big city, Port Moresby, in search of a job. His first job was as a shop assistant in a Chinese shop. It was as a shop assistant that he met and married Eileen in 1989. The next year he went to Porgera where he was engaged as an underground miner. While engaged there he built a house at the Paiam mining township which he then rented out to a Chinese man.

Seven years later he was engaged at Tolukuma gold mine in Central Province as an underground and open drill and blast miner.

In 2005 he resigned his job as a miner and returned to his house at Porgera where he went into partnership with the Chinese man renting his home in a HiLo lottery game which was gaining much popularity at the time.

It was while he was in Porgera that a difficult period descended upon Hela with numerous road blocks on the highlands highway which resulted in the closure of many businesses in Tari. Tari turned into a ghost town. What was the misfortune of others would turn out to be a rare golden opportunity for others but few people saw it as clearly as did Matiabe at the time.

“It was a matter of time before things would improve again,” Matiable says now with a glint in his eye. “Nothing stays closed forever. I knew that if Governor (Anderson Agiru)

was returned to office the place would change again.”

When the big highlands supermarket chain Brombley and Manton put out all its properties in Tari for tender, Matiabe bid for them all and as luck would have it, he won the properties for a paltry K75,000.

Things did improve following the 2007 national elections and Anderson Agiru did return as Governor for Southern Highlands Province. With a Hela countryman as head of the province, with promise of a new province in the wind and property in Tari, Matiabe was now uniquely positioned to move forward.

He met with Governor Agiru in Port Moresby and asked for and received support to put roofing iron over the frame of a warehouse that he had won at tender. Matiabe rented out the warehouse to Curtain Brothers. He next started a building and construction company which he named AM Holdings. With his fellow Hela man in the driving seat, AM Holdings was given its first contract to build 10 police houses in Koroba and he completed that.

Further small contracts followed and he slowly moved from strength to strength while consolidating his position and properties in Hela to prepare for the new province.

His last contract before he moved to his own Nenega Lodge was the building of a large hardware for Atlas Steel in Tari. The steel manufacturer has been invited to set up in Tari to supply material to the hydrocarbon rich province.

His son Alex Jr obtained a diploma attending Lae Technical school and has helped his father in some of the construction design and concepts. In turn his father has assisted in placing him at Unitech to obtain his full credentials as an architect.

Eileen and Alex have three boys including Jr and three girls.

With over K500,000 already invested in Nenega and with other properties in Hela, Alex Matiabe has set his sights and future firmly in his own province.


It has been a long journey.For some the journey finally ended with first gas in

July 2014. That was a glorious interval but for me the journey has not yet ended.

The occasion of first gas, gave us pause to each reflect upon and share our personal stories.

Exploration for oil and gas began early last century, long before I was born and even before Jack Hides “discovered”the Hulia valley and described that first contact in his book “The Papuan Wonderland”.

Gas was discovered alongside oil in many parts of our land, mostly scattered along what geologists have named the Toro Sandstone.

When commercial quantities of both were established, the first plans for development of the resources began in the boardrooms of the companies which had discovered them, unbeknown to any us today.

Oil was and still is in great demand, it being the number one energy driver of the world and first shipment of the precious pitch black liquid from the wells of Kutubu began in 1989. Soon Moran, Gobe and Mananda contributed their share of what the world has come to know as Kutubu Sweet Crude.

Our first gas sailed away in a ship apltly named the Spirit of Hela in July 2015. World demand for clean energy has finally placed gas ahead of oil in an era of global environment concerns. Gas is the energy of the future and God has blessed this nation

Our journey to First Gas

Prime Minster Peter O’Neill (center) with Lady Veronica Somare flanked by prime movers of the LNG project: (from lft) Arthur Somare, LNG boss Peter Graham, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare , Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch and Hela Governor Anderson Agiru.

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By ANDERSON PAWA AGIRU, MP

Our journey to First Gas

with plenty of the stuff. More commercial

discoveries are being made.The moment when I stood

beside Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, former Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, PNG LNG CEO Peter Graham and other dignitaries to cut the ceremonial cake symbolizing first gas is etched indelibly in my mind.

That cake cutting was the popping of the champagne cork, the victory lap, the penultimate moment every team owner, captain, coach, player and fan look forward to.

The journey to that moment is far less glamorous, far more riddled with trials and tribulations, sweat, negotiations, hundreds of thousands of man hours, billions of kina, half a dozen credit agencies, 21 banks and a technical feat unparalleled in the history of this country that will go down in the annals of LNG projects anywhere.

The PNG LNG project is the largest single project Exxon Mobil has ever undertaken worldwide. It has required putting together a financing arrangement involving seven credit agencies from countries as diverse as Australia, China, Italy, Japan and the United States and 21 banks from across the globe.

The cost was put at US$15 billion at the start and ended up costing nearly US$5 billion more.

No less significant is the fact that this deal was put together between 2008 and 2009, the years of the global credit crunch, making finance so tight for major global players that the chances of putting a multi-billion kina deal together in Papua New Guinea was near impossible.

The feat was pulled off with a government and politicians and civil servants who had never before handled a project of this size and indeed had never had experience in the hydrocarbon industry. Both government and developers had to face off a people who are as fierce as any on the planet; who can be obstinate without explanation and strike without invitation. As first gas was shipped out on a ship that bore their collective name I can proudly attest that not a single LNG worker was hurt willfully by the Hela.

That all these have been pulled off is a coup of a magnitude that beggars description.

Every corporate partner and every individual involved in this gigantic enterprise, from welder to company chairman, from land owner to the Prime Minister have their own story to tell.

As the host governor of the project, first as Governor of the Southern Highlands Province and now the new Hela Province, I have watched this project from concept to completion and feel assured that I have contributed

my fair share. I too have my

story.Sometime in 2002

the idea was first broached by the National Government

to pipe PNG’s gas to Queensland, Australia. The idea was to pump the gas straight out of the ground and pipe both condensate (oil) and gas to Queensland and that was the end of it. What the end user did with our resources was none of our concern once it left our shores. Papua New Guinea was once again sending one more and perhaps its last primary resource in its raw form to generate jobs and create industries in distant lands and return to PNG in value added form at some enormous cost to the original owner of the resource.

I was incensed at this.The Hela refer to gas as the last

sow or mother pig. To slaughter the mother pig means the end of the pig line. It is a decision that a Hela family is loathe to take. If for whatever reason it must be killed it must be done the distribution of the pork must be carefully worked out to ensure the family receives a gift in exchange that can continue the wealth line. Gas is our gigira laitebo, our fire in the ground, our last mother pig. Hela legend has it that this fire in the ground would light up the world and Hela. So pig or fire, it is something of great value intrinsic to our society.

Piping gas to Queensland was giving away our last sow to be slaughtered in a foreign land where we had no control. The prophecy in the legend could not be fulfilled. The gigira laitebo would light up distant lands, not Hela. There would be no gift in return to continue the pig line. The future of the Hela nation was being compromised by the National Government in a manner that bordered on


insanity. Of course, I said NO!! publicly,

vehemently and incessantly. The number of times I clashed with my brother Sir Moi Avei who was then Petroleum and Energy Minister is legend. He ridiculed me publicly and lectured me on the economic sense of it all.

Today I gainsay he has no regrets for the way it has turned out.

My tussle with Sir Moi, of course, did not lead directly to the LNG project. That would be vain glory as no single party can claim responsibility for PNG’s first LNG project. If anything on the political front that credit must go to the father of the nation, Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare, without whose nod this project would have been forfeit. But I like to think that my insistence and that of my people did, in a little way, give the LNG project proponents breathing space and valuable political backing to confidently make their case to the national government.

Here enter former Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare and his special deal with the Hela Nation. On March 27, 2007, the Grand Chief, Arthur Somare and Bart Philemon visited the Hela in Tari>

They already had in their possession Hela’s demands which translated: No Hela Province, No Gas; No LNG project, No Gas.

And there in front of 30,000 plus members of the Hela Nation Sir Michael pledged that if he returned as the Prime Minister he would grant Hela both demands. The Hela rose and sat as one when it heard that. There had been a light drizzle that morning but nobody was paying heed to the mud. The Hela cry rant the

sky and the ground shook as they stamped their appreciation.

Sir Michael did return and he did grant Hela’s two wishes. Without that political decision, I believe the road to commercialization of our gas resource might have been rocky and perhaps never achieved.

The Gas Agreement was signed well after midnight on May 22, 2008, not the least because I did not know what it contained. I dragged my feet to the very end, wanting the project I had struggled to see come into fruition on the one hand but concerned nonetheless about what was in it for my people. That paradox has been a constant for me in this

project: I must help progress the project with all possible speed and I must take care to maximize benefits to my people. I call it the balance of sanity.

After the gas agreement was signed both the government and the joint venture partners moved quickly to set in place the legislative framework, the financing mechanism, the technical and logistic aspects and the benefits stream.

On the government side a new set of players came into the picture. The national gas committee was formed with notables such as Sir Puka Temu, Arthur Somare, Paul Tiensten, William Duma, Patrick Pruaitch and Don Polye. A support team of technocrats led by Chief Secretary Sir Mansupe Zurenuoc and Diari Vele provided invaluable advise and support. Never has there been an LNG project in PNG nor one of the size proposed yet not a man was daunted and none doubted. They worked odd hours and clocked stellar performances. No small amount of credit is due this team.

The journey to First Gas

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There are many milestones in this project and many records set and broken it would take a book to cover them all. I was there in New York when the financial agreement was signed, a critical moment in the project life.

I was asked by the Central, Gulf and Western provincial governments to represent them and their people at the Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement negotiations . This was a mamoth task and credit must go to every person involved on all sides. If something went wrong at this juncture, we might never have got the project off the ground. No less arduous was the License Based Benefits Sharing Agreements which ministerws William Duma and Arthur Somare and a few of us burnt many mid night candles to accomplish.

All of these events involved so much time and energy and resurces and many of them were happening at the same time in board rooms around the earth and at different locations in PNG, including the massive

logistical and technological feat of designing and constructing the plant and laying out the pipeline on land and across the Gulf of Papua to just outside Port Moresby. As I mentioned earlier each aspect of the project

would take a volume to fully detail and over coming issues of Hela Dawn, I shall be sharing more experiences with regards to the LNG project and how this has primed us as a people and government to move forward.


The gigantic structures of the LNG processing plant outside Port Moresby with Spirit of Hela tanker in the back. (inset) Spirit of Hela berthed at Papa Lealea LNG site for the loading of first gas for export.

locality since the Wage region share the same geographical location as well as the same high altitudes as at Kandep and Tambul.

That word did get out at all was through the dedicated efforts of a few civil servants in the affected districts working voluntarily with the Provincial Disaster Coordinator, Mr Tom Hingili Edabe.

Edabe got his first letter out to the National Disaster Office in Port Moresby in late August.

“Frost and prolonged drought has put certain parts of Hela in a far worse situation than any previous disasters,”

Two local level governments in the Hela Province were devastated by

frost at the same time that frost hit parts of Enga in Kandep and Western Highlands in Tambul districts.

The Lower Wage and Upper Wage areas of Magarima in the Komo Magarima District were hard hit by frost which wiped out food gardens and left some 50,000 at starvation point long before the slower working drought removed their water sources and baked whatever was left of gardens and bush food sources.

This should hardly surprise anybody with any knowledge of the

Drought & frost strike Wage

The mighty Tagali River had shrivelled to a meandering stream by October 2015.

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Drought & frost strike Wage


Edabe reported. By then Hela was in the third month of El Nino’s paralysing grip.

In the letter to Andrew Ogio, Deputy Director of the National Disaster Office at Hohola Edabe wrote:

“All the water tanks have run dry in Tari Town and we are running into the third week now. Public Servants are having daily trips to Tebi, Hulia and Alua rivers with truckloads of tuffa tanks, 44 gallon drums and various sizes of containers to fetch water to meet their daily needs. They know that water from these sources are unhygienic but where can they go at this stage? Health and education institutions are facing severe disaster? Public servants, business communities and the public are facing the burning sun each day and the dust is causing its own problems.”

By September the hardworking Edabe had put together a comprehensive report of affected areas, having personally visited all parts, complete with graphic photographic evidence demonstrating of the seriousness of the situation.

Provincial Administrator William Bando immediately presented the report in person to Acting Inter-Government Relations Secretary and National Disaster Committee Chairman, Dickson Guina. Guina congratulated Bando on becoming the first Administrator to be concerned sufficiently to present a El Nino driven disaster report in person.

While presenting the report, Mr Bando made a public appeal to people living along the banks of major rivers which were still flowing to stop preventing others from accessing water or selling the water.

He also asked that all water obtained from these sources for consumption be boiled to prevent water borne diseases.

Worst affected areas were Upper Wage LLG of Komo Magarima with some 16,000 seriously affected and

Lower Wage LLG with some 22,000 affected. The report named the other seriously affected areas as:

A part of Hulia LLG (Komo/Magarima);

Levani Valley and parts of North Koroba LLG (Koroba Lake Kopiago);

Parts of South Koroba; andParts of Tebi, Takali, Hayapuga

and some Urban LLGs of Tari/Pori Electorate.

Deaths were reported in all these parts but none could really be verified as having been caused directly by starvation or malnutrition or other ailments linked to frost or drought.

It is certain though that Health and education institutions were seriously affected in terms of food and water shortages. Many were reduced to half day operations causing immediate hardship for those seeking medical treatment and delayed and lifetime ramifications upon the education of young people.

The main causes to suffering reported were that: • Allwatersourceshavedwindled

or actually dried up;• Foodgardens/cropshaddriedup

or failed to bear any food;• Bush fires had reduced wild

life and bush berries and other natural food such as pandanus

(karuka nut) of the forest;• Low soil fertility made it

impossible to grow food and lack of water made irrigated farming impossible even on very small vegetable plot basis for family survival; and

• Spread of diseases wasimminent or happening due to poor sanitation, malnutrition, dirty water, dust inhalation and influenza compounded by health facilities failing to stay open.The situation was further

compounded by the fact that the new province had only just created the Disaster Office and appointed Edabe in April of that year and there was nil budget for operations. Edabe had a staff of one – himself.

The extent of damage is yet to be fully assessed but the first bales of rice and food supply went out in mid-November. By then there was some relief for parched throats and soil as the rains had started in parts of the province.

A team from World Vision visited the province at the behest of AusAID to carry out physical assessment on sources of water, accessibility and alternate sources as well as a team from the British High Commission.

Lone Provincial Disaster Coordinator, Tom Edabe flanked by World Vision’s Joshua Tesfaye (lft) and Philip Kupo in Tari.


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Oil Search helps El Nino victims

at present, we simply can’t stand by and watch this terrible situation unfold in our own backyard so we’re taking immediate action to help those in need and are putting substantial resources into the drought relief effort,” Mr Buskens said.

“To overcome the logistical challenges involved, we’ve already mobilized a dedicated team to work with our operations teams and with landowner companies in the project areas to source and help distribute provisions each week from our bases in Nogoli, Moro, Gobe and Kopi.

“We are also working with the PNG Government’s National Disaster Committee and with third parties to ensure the coordination and sustained supply of water and provisions into the affected areas.

“Oil Search remains committed to PNG and we are very keen to do what we can to help communities ride out what unfortunately looks like being an extend period of low rainfall,” Mr Buskens said.

Villagers in Kaipu and Sisibia, which were among the first to receive assistance, thanked the company for coming to their aid. They said their traditional water sources had dried up and sago and kaukau had also been affected placing the people at starvation point.

Oil Search Limited in November 2015 kicked of a major drought relief initiative to provide

much needed food, water and medicine to villagers near the company’s project areas.

Supplies were sourced and distributed within the company’s project areas in the Gulf, Hela, and Southern Highlands provinces.

The relief effort started in the Kutubu villages of Kaipu and Sisibia on November 26 with the distribution of rice bags, tinned fish and noodles to start with.

The Oil Search drought initiative was to have covered 94 villages, 851 wards, 9,623 wards and more than 27,000 people in the three provinces.

People who received aid thanked the company for the much needed supplies.

According to the PNG Government, up to 2.5 million people in PNG were affected by the El Nino induced prolonged drought with highlands provinces among the worst affected.

“PNG has been hit hard by the El Nino weather system and as a result, crops have failed or been ravaged by pests and many waterways that villages rely heavily on for drinking water and cooking have stopped flowing,” said Leon Buskens, GM PNG Stakeholder Engagement.

“This is having devastating effects and comes after parts of the country were seriously affected by frost earlier this year.

“With so many people experiencing hard times

Oil Search’s staff handing out relief supplies to the drought affected people of Hela.


PNG Pawa, embattled with financial and capacity

problems coupled with ongoing management and staff unrest, has been told to leave power generation responsibilities to others and concentrate on distribution and collection of tariffs.

Hela Governor Anderson Agiru says persistent problems over the years show beyond any doubt that the SOE does not have the capitalization to trade itself out of its current problems because the capital expenditure is simply too much .

“The government will be foolish to continue to throw good money after bad trying to assist this monopolistic operation again and again,” Agiru said.

“It is time to turn to the principle of private public partnership (PPP) that Parliament has passed legislation on.”

Agiru is not merely taking part in an emotive debate. He is confident that he can assist the PNG Pawa with excess power through its Ramu grid when Hela’s own Hydro power plant is constructed and switched on.

Hela’s hydro power plant, to

harness the natural might of the Tagali river at Hewaii Falls, will be able to generate 320 megawats of power when fully operation.

Said Governor Agiru: “ Our detailed design and detailed survey has been completed. That cost us K9 m. Our partners El Al Group and Hydro Tasmania have come up with the design and costing. We can generate 320 megawatts of power. We will do it in stages, first 160 megawatts and then when the demand increases we will continue to add turbines. We have some off-taker agreements already. Positive discussions have been held, including with Porgera mine which needs to extend its mine life. Porgera needs cheap source of energy. They are one of the groups we are already holding talks with and of course PNG Power.

“PNG Power should not be involved in power generation. They should be involved in distribution and collecting tariffs because the capital expenditure outlay is huge and the PNG Pawa does not have the capitalization to do all of that. It should leave power generation to the private sector.”

The Hela Hydro will cost $A510 million or K1.2 billion. Governor Agiru said the government has already got expression of interest from potential financiesrs.

Under the proposal 30 per cent will be funded through equity and 70 per cent by debt financing. The equity component would come from private equity funds and the debt component will come from banks, he said.

“ On our economic modeling those who fund the equity component on behalf of the Hela Provincial Government would earn 23 per cent net return or higher up. For the 70 per cent debt providers they would get 17 per cent so the economic returns is just equivalent to the LNG. Any investment bank around the globe will be interested where there is a net rate return projection of this nature. At the moment banks fund projects which have 10 per cent internal rate of return.”

It is expected Finance James Minister Marape and Governor Agiru and a team will be doing a road show in New York, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Port Moresby to promote the project to financiers.

Hela Power Plant to be constructed soon

Plans are on the way to begin

construction of the revolutionary

Hela Power Plant that will power all

of Hela with excess capacity once

fully operational.

Hela Hydro

Futu

re p

lans

delivering like never before to Koroba Lake Kopiago

Koroba Kopiago District is on record as one of the least

developed districts in PNG. It is located at the tail end of the Highlands Highway and is lacking behind the rest of the country. The demand is high for rehabilitation of ailing public infrastructure such as roads and bridges, health, and education as well as new infrastructure right across the district. Because of its remoteness, no reputable contractor wants to do work in the district or if they chose

to, they do so at a considerable cost.

This has prompted Hon. Philip Undialu and his District Development Authority Board to focus on capacity building over the last 2 years. The Koroba Kopiago Holdings Ltd is the startling and delightful result. Worth between K20 – K30 million, KKHL is the spear head of the development drive in Koroba Lake Kopiago.

The company operates a 100 - men main camp at Kuparo and 5 project site camps at:

1. Pureni2. Kulu/Hides3. Koroba Station4. Fugwa5. Kelabo

KKH operates quarries at:1. Hage2. Imamu3. Tola4. Kagoma5. Lapanda Pawa6. Kulu

Plant & Equipment include:12 Excavators3 Graders3 Rollers11 Dump Trucks15 Light Vehicles1 Sealing Truck5 Dozers

Documents

Standing Hela Province A drive for health, wealth and ... · sail away with the historic first shipment of LNG and a week later was with the PM, Tari Pori MP James Marape, and Koroba