Work continues to relocate PNG villagers after devastating landslide

Tribal conflict was considered when finding a place to relocate displaced people from the Enga Province landslide, the region’s provincial administrator says.

Sandis Tsaka said two pieces of land had been identified.

“Those lands, while owned by villagers in the area, it’s been vacant, so talking to the communities for the government to acquire in the longer term, they’ve been very receptive and supportive to make the land available to the government,” Tsaka said.

“We’re starting the process to acquire the land and gradually move the people in, and put up the basic infrastructure that’s required to build up a community, so that people can actually settle in.”

Four villages have been affected by the landslide and the high-risk areas in each will be evacuated.

Tsaka said the number of people being evacuated should become clear soon.

“The four villages [are] estimated to have a population of around 10,000-plus, and we may be evacuating a quarter or a third – we will know the details once people living in those high-risk areas are properly mapped out.”

The number of people killed and displaced remains unknown.

Search and recovery of bodies was officially stopped on 7 June, due to the danger of another landslide and health risks associated with decomposing bodies.

The landslide is now considered a mass burial site and only 12 bodies were recovered.

Tsaka said geotechnical experts from New Zealand identified another landslide is imminent.

“It could be bigger than the one we had – compounded with loose rock and debris that continues to move.”

The landslide, which covers about 14 hectares, has cut off a critical road to the Porgera Valley, where about 100,000 people live, and which is the location of a major goldmine.

Tsaka said it was the biggest form of economic activity in the province.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Papua New Guinea is asking donors for millions more.

The UNDP had been helping with the initial landslide response. PNG Country Resident Nicholas Booth said the humanitarian needs had been overwhelming.

He said they now need to help with ongoing care to rebuild the communities.

“They want to rebuild their homes; they want to actually be helped to start up their normal lives again.

“It is going to be a sizeable task,” he said.

“I think that we have estimated the early recovery needs at around US$5 million, and then US$7 million for the broader peace-building programme.”

Booth said as well as housing, UNDP planned to improve strengthening community preparedness and early warning systems.

“So all of those initiatives are all focussed very much on the affected communities, looking at what’s ahead for them for the next year or so, and also working on social cohesion, access to services and things like that.”

Booth said the UNDP is also working to extend its peace-building programmes that have been underway largely in Southern Highlands and Hela Provinces for the past three years, to Enga.