Bulolo - my strategy to drive the district forward to bring prosperity to my people

Hon Sam Basil MP

Member for Bulolo

Paper presented to the Lowy Institute for International Policy on Tackling Poverty in Papua New Guinea, Sydney, 14th May 2009

Distinguished Guests, Friends of Papua New Guinea, Ladies and Gentlemen. I am very grateful to the Lowy Institute; Care Australia and the Australian National University for inviting me to present my view in Sydney today on how to tackle poverty in Papua New Guinea and especially the practical steps I am taking in my electorate of Bulolo.

Let me start off by giving you a bit of background into Bulolo. My people are simple subsistence farmers and like the majority of Papua New Guineans in rural areas they live on the poverty borderline. This is despite the fact that Bulolo sits on some of the richest mineral deposits in the world and the electorate has over the last six years experienced a massive increase of foreign investment into the District. This may be good news for the mining companies and it means more tax revenue goes to the Government coffers. However, I am very disappointed that the mineral sector has contributed very little to the social and economic development of Bulolo even though extensive exploration and mining has taken place there for decades. In the 1920’s, Bulolo District was the most advanced and prosperous region in all of PNG. The district had good access to road networks; very good airline service; top quality health service; electricity and telephone services. Today, Bulolo still carries the ugly scars of the huge environmental damage left behind by the early mining pioneers. 

They cared very little for the welfare and well being of our people. They had no long-term developmental plans for the townships of Wau and Bulolo but were more interested in making huge profits and transferring them to their bank accounts in Australia.

I am a realist and know that nothing will change overnight unless I take the leadership to articulate and develop long-term strategic plans to address the social and economic hardship facing my people and electorate. I can say that Bulolo does have a high rate of child malnutrition, maternal mortality, child mortality, tuberculosis and an increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases. Our health centers; clinics; schools in Bulolo, Wau and sub-districts are crumbling under the weight of our people demanding better services. 

Furthermore, there are shortages of doctors, health workers and teachers. Our people are desperate for help and they are drowning in a sea of despair and are gasping for air. Our aging road system that connects the rural populace to Wau, Bulolo, Mumeng and Lae City are in critical need of repair and maintenance as it is the only lifeline for bringing social and economic development to my people. I can stand here until the sun sets and criticize my Government and our former colonial master, Australia, for their past misdeeds, but what good would that do for my people? 

Since I got elected into Parliament, I have made it a priority for the district to invest 80 percent of our development budget each year in basic infrastructure. Once our Joint District Budget Planning Committee had set out its priorities, we then established the Bulolo District Road Maintenance Program (BDRMP).  It is designed to link into and complement the joint district and national works road maintenance programs. This program is self-funded by the district with its own equipment and road construction crew. We funded for and purchased 3 bulldozers; 1 backhoe; 4 dump trucks; a roller; an excavator; a grader and 4 tractors which will be used to clear up our rural roads that have been neglected for years and roads in the townships of Wau and Bulolo. The district pays for and employs a fulltime road crew; mechanic and manager. The purpose of the BDRMP is not a political stunt but an initiative that will open opportunities for our smallholder and subsistence farmers to have access to markets.  

It is my intention to ensure that mothers with a sick child will not have to walk more than 4 hours to reach the nearest road to get to a health clinic or hospital. 

Many schools and health centers in the district have been deprived of educational materials and medical supplies because the roads are in a bad state due to incompetence and neglect by successive Government authorities over the years. 

Already we can see that the BDRMP is making a difference to the lives of the Bulolo people and reducing poverty at the district level. The BDRMP is increasing the disposal income of our rural people and raising their level of confidence to participate and contribute to the social and economic development of their community. For instance, PMV’s are now traveling into some of the most remote villages and transporting down to Lae garden vegetables and coffee for farmers to sell whereas a couple of years ago their crop will go to waste as they had no access because their road had been washed away by floods or been left to the elements because of lack of maintenance. Many woman farmers have expressed their happiness to me that now they can sell their vegetables and save enough for their children’s education as well small scale alluvial miners having their buyers at their doorsteps.

In this paper I will also highlight some of the other programs currently under implementation and initiated by my Joint District Priority & Budget Planning Committee (JDP&BPC) of which I am chairman:

                        A. Bulolo District Road Maintenance Program (BDRMP)

Responsibilities; Road building, culverting and general maintenances. The program has a contracted manager with all operators and drivers on an annual budget funding.

                        B. Bulolo District Water Supply Program (BDWSP)

Responsibilities; Delivering & Installation of new water projects and maintenances to existing systems.

                        C. Bulolo District Rural Electrification Program (BDREP)

Responsibilities; Working in Partnership with PNG Power Limited in HV Transmission Lines plus installations of MSK units to rural houses. 

                        D. Bulolo District Building & Maintenance Program (BDBMP)

Responsibilities; This program has a set of 3 x Units of carpenters consisting carpenters, brick layers and plumbers with provision of engaging villagers for its building programs. This program helps build new classrooms, health centers and other community building requirements as the costs of all workers are being budgeted and paid including equipments and machineries.

                        E. Bulolo District Foot Bridge Program (BDBFP)

Responsibilities; Building foot bridges under the supervision of a program manager equipped with all equipments and machineries.

                        F. Bulolo District Mobile Health Program (BDMHP)

Responsibilities; Delivering of health extension services by treating villagers by road due to non existence of drug supplies in the rural aid posts. A budget of K10,000.00 per month is made available for drug purchases plus the contract costs of the HEO, Driver and logistical support of this mobile program.

 

                        G. Bulolo District Rural Communication Program (BDRCP)

Responsibilities; This particular program helps Telikom with extra funding to run telephone aerial cables kilometers apart from the main installations. 

These programs are basically designed as a Parallel System of Delivery due to the non existence of the normal government service delivery mechanisms. For example why build an aid post when there are no drugs to be delivered by the national government? As an elected Member of Parliament I cannot sit, wait and hear my constituents complain about lack of services all the time.

A key feature and a very important component of one of our programs are targeted specifically at woman. Our District has recently invested K80,000.00 into honey bee backyard farming. We have successfully rolled out 50% of the program with the other half to commence next month. I anticipate that when this program is completed there will be 60 woman bee hive farmers. We

estimate that these farmers will make approximately K18,000.00 per annum in revenue. The current market of honey is at K10.00 per kilogram so it opens up another opportunity for our woman to generate their own income to support their family.  

The district will evaluate and monitor this program and will provide regular funding every year to ensure its sustainability.

Furthermore, our district has provided K10,000.00 in a seed distribution program to assist woman to grow commercial crops. In this program, the district provides seeds at no cost to woman in the villages so that they can grow a range of quality fruit and vegetables. Once the produce are ready, I have made an arrangement where the woman farmers will sell their fresh fruit and  vegetables directly to Nationwide Catering Services which is contracted to do the catering for the Hidden Valley Gold Mine and Wafi Mine, both operations located in my electorate. This initiative is a joint collaboration between NCS and my JDP & BPC. This program is designed in a way to bring the market directly to the doorstep of our woman folk. We will support and sustain this program by providing K10,000.00 every six month for seed purchases and distribution.

Woman of Bulolo are the backbone and driving force behind the economic and social development of the district and I will ensure that they will get 120 percent support (not 100 percent!) in our development budget every year.

Also during the NARI expo last week my district has also paid K300,000.00 to the Department of Agriculture & Livestock in Erap to make available 180 cows, 180 goats, 8 buffalo, 6000 ducklings and drinkers for 667 farmers and 20,000 fingerlings of super tilapia with additional K7000.00 to the Morobe Fisheries inland farming program for training workshop which will commence next week.

A further K30,000.00 will be made available NARI for 300 farmers to attend classes and sharpen their skills in agriculture with introduction of rabbits included in their programs. There are a number of other development type programs that my district planners are working on. Once we are able to set our priorities, we will roll them out in 2010.

The Government has neglected the people of Bulolo for more than 20 years. Since the beginning of the 1900’s, foreign investors have

ripped the heart and soul out of my people’s land in mining for gold and yet Bulolo still is and remain one of the least developed electorates in Papua New Guinea. 

There is a wide gap between the haves in Port Moresby and the have-not’s in the rural areas. Despite being independent for more than 35 years, our people still do not have access to basic services such as roads, clean water, proper sanitation, communication and electricity. Our leaders have an obligation to invest in meaningfully social and economic programs that will help alleviate poverty

Investment into appropriate technologies to process cash crops currently available such as producing ground coffee to replace instant coffee, village level production of raw sugar to replace refined sugar, goat/cow milking techniques and know how to replace condensed/dry milk, rice production and processing to replace imported rice from the trade store shelves, cultivating and curing tobacco products to replace cigarettes, introducing the craftsmanship of jewellary to convert alluvial gold to jewels, coffee pulping machines, introduction of walkabout sawmill to produce timber locally to replace hardware timbers are some examples of job creation that will also protect the micro economy to sustain itself and grow.

In conclusion, I have a message for our donor friends. I believe now is the time particularly for policy makers in Australia and Papua New Guinea to undertake a major overhaul and review of development aid program in Papua New Guinea. I am hearing the message from my people very loud and clear. They are frustrated and showing contempt in the Government system because they can see that their lives in the village are not improving but they can see that they are slipping further and further into poverty. The people of Papua New Guinea need fresh air to breathe after decades of neglect and deprivation. This is not political grand standing, but a reality for my people. It is my hope that the Government, businesses, foreign investors and donors can reach out to these marginalized communities and work in a collaborative manner so that together we can bring improvement and hope to their lives and aspirations for this current generation and our children’s future.

Thank you