Opinion & Commentary
All shoulders to the wheel
A visitor to Chimbu Province in Papua New Guinea would have watched in stunned surprise last month, as thousands of villagers picked up their farming tools to build a feeder road to link their communities to the Highlands Highway, the only major road in the country.
Chimbu is one of the most densely populated areas of PNG, and has fast-flowing rivers and rugged terrain. The people of the region had been waiting years for the provincial government or the central government -- anybody -- to build the 4km feeder road.
The old road was built in the 1960s and back then all manner of vehicles could cross it with relative ease.
Over the past 15 years, as maintenance and repairs have been neglected, the road had become waterlogged and so potholed that not even the sturdiest of four-wheel-drives could cross it.
Without the road, access to fuel, canned meat and fish (because protein is always in short supply) and other necessities for the surrounding people was costly and limited. Even the most basic first-aid clinics could not be accessed easily.
Locals were left to risk the old flooded road or walk the distance over mountainous terrain to get their agricultural crops to market on their backs. Children had to walk these same trails to get to school.
The dead bodies of relatives were being buried along the highway as there was no way of transporting them back to their villages.
Kengera Kua, who comes from Chimbu but has become chairman of the PNG Law Society, decided enough was enough. He began the project to build the road link with his own money, and other local businesses and individuals chipped in what they could.
Most significantly, Kua managed to convince tribes along the road corridor to give up their lands, homes and crops without payment or compensation. In a country where negotiations over land have taken not months but years, this was path-breaking and could only have been possible after long and painstaking negotiations.
The custom of "compensation" to landowners for anything that takes place on their land has long been an impediment to development in PNG. The PNG Government should accept a large part of this blame.
In the past it has built unsafe roads and been unable to maintain them. Difficult terrain and rainfall make road maintenance critical. Australian aid has rebuilt the Lae-Goroka stretch of the Highlands Highway, but it is still impassable during the wet season between Goroka and Mt Hagan. Potholes large enough to engulf small cars are common, and entire lanes can and do fall off the mountain cliffs in some sections. Several vehicles are lost each year to the gaping ravine below.
Knowing that roads will be unsafe and badly maintained and therefore provide little benefit, communal landowners have become expert at extracting rents from government activities at every stage.
Compensation has to be paid to allow roads initially to be built, then more paid for repairs and maintenance. Any sections that may require rebuilding will also require additional compensation.
Landowners often do not allow government maintenance crews on to their territory. Some make a living from standing over potholes and charging a "repair toll" to each vehicle that passes. Others have been known to dig the potholes themselves for the same purpose.
In Chimbu only one month after the plan was first devised, some 10,000 locals from a population of 18,000 turned up with anything they could get their hands on -- shovels, crowbars, picks. Some came armed with only their bush knives.
The initial land clearing was done in a matter of hours, and the entire project took just three days.
It could not have been easy. The villagers are subsistence farmers who grow and sell a few crops to market for a bit of cash.
Few have anything more than a few years of basic education. Most cannot even read or write. Any civil engineer certainly would have expressed pride in their efforts.
PNG sought independence 30 years ago because it wanted to be self-reliant. In the years since, successive governments have presided over a massive decline in living standards and an increasing dependence on aid.
Now one tribe has demonstrated that communities need not rely on governments to improve their lot.
By following Kua's example, feeder roads could be rebuilt and maintained all over PNG.
For ordinary folk to pick up shovels and start digging may be the road less travelled, but at least it's a road.
Gaurav Sodhi is a researcher with The Centre for Independent Studies.
