600-plus warned about cracks

More than 600 persons living at Yambali Care Centre in Mulitaka, Enga, following the May 24 landslide have been asked to move to a safer location immediately.
This follows threatening cracks on the land where more than 100 tents have been erected to accommodate homeless families from Tulipara village which had been buried with 165 persons four weeks ago.
Provincial police commander Chief Supt Fred Yakasa said he had consulted chairman Sandis Tsaka and his Enga Disaster Management Committee, Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF)officials and other parties before he conveyed the message to the people on the need to leave the area.
He said other villages located below the landslide site which had also been asked to evacuate to sites outside the red zone. They are Lepak, Lepos, Maroons, Ipakarinis, Kepeyam and Ikus, with an estimated population of 6,000 persons.
Enga administrator Tsaka said his committee was aware of the emergency situation at Yambali Care Centre, and are consulting with parties involved in the disaster management and coordination to evacuate the survivors to a new location near Mulitaka High School.
He said his committee was also working on plans to resettle people from the red zone to a permanent location behind Mukitaka Health Centre.
Meanwhile, a new bypass road will be ready to connect Porgera-Paiela, and the rest of Enga will begin in two weeks’ time.
This was settled after parties, including relatives of those buried in the Mulitaka landslide, landowners of the bypass project, the Enga government and Works and Highways Department, reached an understanding last week to open up Porgera with a road connection.
Tsaka thanked the leaders of Maip-Mulitaka Local Level Government, village elders and the villagers for realising the importance of accessing Porgera with a road to transport fuel, food and other supplies to sustain mine operations and more than 150,000 persons in the district.
Currently, fuel to the mine is being pumped from the disaster site while food supplies are being airlifted on helicopters to the mine.
Tsaka said PNGDF’s engineering battalion, from Igam Barracks in Lae, Morobe, had already started construction and have covered almost 1km in four days.
The total distance for the bypass road is 3km.
Technical officers are also on site assisting PNGDF to fast track the construction, Tsaka said.
New Porgera Limited country manager Karo Maha-Lelai thanked the Enga government, led by Governor Sir Peter Ipatas and his administration, for working to come up with an understanding to construct the bypass road to allow the mine to transport supplies to sustain its operations.