Watut River Communities welcomes NRI Review into Mine Benefits in Bulolo.

The Union of Watut River Communities Association Incorporated, a Community Based Organization that deals with Mining Impact, Environment and Community Development since 2009 based in Bulolo District of Morobe Province has welcome the report conducted by the National Research Institute to review and assess benefit-sharing arrangements of large-scale Mining Activities in Wau-Bulolo.

UoWRCA Inc President, Mr. Reuben Mete thanks Bulolo District Bulolo Joint District Planning and Budget Priorities Committee (JDP&BPC) under the chairmanship of the Member for Bulolo, Hon. Sam Basil for commissioning of such vital studies into the district  with the view to assess the benefits flow from the Hidden Valley Mine and its impact on the development within the mine impact communities and the broader Bulolo District specific in that the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) which is undergoing review.

Mete said the study has put to light some assumptions the communities has in question the sustainable development model used by mining companies such as that of the Hidden Valley - a joint-venture company owned equally by Harmony Gold Mining Company of South Africa and Newcrest Mining Limited of Australia. Despite having benefits, especially mining royalties, from the Hidden Valley gold mining project flow to the National Government, Provincial Government, Local-Level governments and host land owners, communities living out of mine and out of sight who were not party to the MOA has seen minimum benefits compare to international standards and guidelines and has nothing to show for but only negative impacts of socio – economy and environment.

“We are now calling on the Member for Bulolo, Morobe Provincial Government and the Respective Government agencies such as the Department of Mining and Mineral Resources Authority to seriously look into the five (5) findings and recommendations put forward by the NRI report and find amicable ways to address it,” Mete said.

Mete also calls for an inclusion of the communities along Labu, Wampar, Lower Watut and Middle Watut to be included in the benefit sharing agreements in the current reviewed MOA. He said the Organization has made commitments to disseminate the copies of the studies to the communities living along Watut and Markham River so that they can have access, be informed and made informed decisions for the sake of our future generation. Mete said an Awareness Exercise and Community Empowerment Plan has already been put forward and will commence mid this month to end of next month. 

Isolated and Remote Watut village to build own Elementary School.

President of the Union of Watut River Communities Association Incorporated (UoWRCA Inc) Mr Reuben Mete says early child care and development is very important as it provides a foundation for a prosperous and sustainable society. Children aging from age zero to six must be given 

support and opportunity for child’s growth and development which include nutrition, hygiene, cognitive, social, physical and emotional development. 

Mete made the comment when officiating the ground breaking ceremony of Givekes Elementary School in Middle Watut, Morobe Province. The success of a child future depends largely on quality education and mentors. The Elementary School will now be build on volunteers and good will of the community which comes as a result of the Givekes village initiatives without government assistant. 

Elementary school o early child care is very important because it is a period when the brain is developing very fast, and is flexible. The child’s experiences in seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling all contributes to the early learning and setting of the belief system. Mr. Mete challenges the rural communities to start looking at their child with a different perspective. “We must realize that the child at the very early age is already a thinker and a decision maker and not just a passive observer”, Mete said. 

Givekes village is in Middle Watut of Bulolo District Morobe Province however, there has been no Education, Health and other basic government infrastructures and services found in the area. It is also a mine impacted communities given the multi million kina Hidden Valley project operated by Australia’s Newcrest Mining Limited and South African Harmony Gold Limited however the benefits receive from such has been zero to this date.

Watut Communities launched Roof Over Head Plan.

Mr. Titi presented with the roofing iron in
Kapin village, Middle Watut.

The simple subsistence farmers who live in thatched roof of kunai grass houses in Middle Watut may now put some smile on their faces after Union of Watut River Communities Association Incorporated (UoWRCA Inc) launched its Roof over Head Plan (RoHP) this year. The President of UoWRCA Inc and Community Development advocator Mr. Reuben Mete when presenting the iron roof, ridge cap and nails to Lazarus Titi of Sambus village in Middle Watut says for too long our rural people have been deprived of their rights of accessing basic government services and thus making life more complicated and difficult. 

Lazarus Titi was the first recipient of the RoHP which saw him receiving 16 eight foot roofing iron, 3 ridge cap, 2 packet roofing nail, 4 packet three inch nail, 3 packet four inch nail and 2 packet six inch nail. Mr. Titi when thanking Mr. Mete and UoWRCA Inc for the initiatives highlighted that traditional kunai roof which was a burden for his wife when it comes to roof maintenance every two years would be now a thing of the past. The other building materials such as timbers will be sourced from the forest as there are many trees and logs that are available for the local usage. 

Mr. Mete says UoWRCA Inc plans to put iron roof over 1,500 heads this year 2015 but need additional support of saw mills and chain saw from other relevant organization including government bodies. Mete said the initiatives to help assist families was to strengthen communities social structure as well as spiritual and ethical growth and transformation which should start from inside the house first and then to the communities and societies. The UoWRCA Inc has been initiated in 2009 and has since plays important key roles in driving change into Middle Watut of Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea. 

Importance of Sustainable Development – Australia & Papua New Guinea Relationship.

Sustainable Development can be best defined as “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” according to the World Commission on Environment and Development’s (Oxford University Press, 1987).

Sustainable Development is only used when human beings put dollars and cents before common sense. This is a developing countries phenomenon. (Mete, R, 2014.) Despite often being labeled as a “mountain of gold floating in a sea of oil” Papua New Guinea or Papua New Guineans, have yet to experience the benefits promised by mining and other extractive industries (MPI, 2012). With poor education standards, increasing infant mortality and declining services all contributing to a static Human Development Indicator, Papua New Guinea have a right to question the assumption that ‘ extractive industries brings development’.

Australian miners have staked Papua New Guinea, where the incredible prospectivity is enough to outweigh its challenging operating environment, as a brave new mineral frontier. But the ever challenging balancing act of operations versus landowner concerns threatens to turn the Pacific elephant country allure into an elephant graveyard for careless miners.  

Melbourne-based Newcrest Mining Ltd is the most prominent face of a new generation of Australian miners trying to tap opportunities in the Pacific. Pascoe A, in Australia’s Paydirt article published in September 2012 says while Australians have long dominated PNG’s mining sector, the nation has been revived as a hot frontier for Australian miner delving into elephant country as traditional minerals domains dry up.

Australian miners are no strangers to making mines work in highly challenging environment – notably in Sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade; where they have been credited with bringing along their high domestic standards in occupational health and safety to other countries. The Federal Government sponsored mining for Development initiatives to build on that reputation in the realm of community development. However, the evidence suggests the quality control exported by Australians in the Pacific is more problematic.

Perhaps this reflects the ignominious legacy of Australian miners in PNG – namely the Ok Tedi, Panguna and Watut River by Hidden Valley catastrophes, the former arguable among the worst mining environmental disaster ever, the other partly responsible for a war (Bougainville) which killed 16,000 people including women and children.

The historical implications isn’t a good start given companies are working with a state and bureaucracy rife corruption, which appear to have intensify with the development of the US15.7 billion PNG LNG project in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Operated by ExxonMobil-subsidiary Esso Highlands Ltd, the LNG  projects has ignited renewed interest in the nation’s resources sector and the two governments fighting for leadership rights prior to the recent election have both sought to capitalize on that.

In Papua New Guinea, this means, for example, amending the Environmental Act to allow Ramu Nico to deposit tailings into the ocean. And while miners may see the lax regulatory environment as a necessary trade-off given the steeper risk gradient they undertake by trying to build projects in Papua New Guinea, the down side may outweigh the benefits.

The concerns of landowners have tended to be the bigger casualties of the recent new push for investment as a weak regulatory environment makes the corporate social responsibility requirement set by the government more opaque. However, as Rio Tinto Ltd found out in Bougainville – and as the new generation of miners are beginning to discover; Papua New Guinea is not a country where miners and developers can afford to pay lip services to landowner’s discontent regardless of the level of engagement required by government. 

It is time now that the young people in both Papua New Guinea and Australia look for opportunities that are being available such as Dialogues and Conferences to empower youth’s participation and sharing information through the Information Communication Technologies platform that are available and use them to get their voices to be heard. In addition, young people should rediscover themselves as young men and women – future leaders for tomorrow, reclaim that the source of action and responsibilities lies within our self. The next step is to think globally and to think humanity as a single moral community linked by mutual responsibility. The youth population of today should be encouraged to participate more actively on this journey. The young generation should act responsibly now, because older we are, the deeper our roots are in the past and less able we are to see ways in which the future is developing.

Flaws in environment and mining laws with duplicate responsibilities of government regulators, absent of impact assessments and baseline data can be identified as the barrier to Sustainable Development. According to Australia’s Paydirt (2012) article, Newcrest PNG Manager Peter Aitsi argues that landowner discontent reflects a lack of manpower in the government departments charged with overseeing regulation of the resources sector. “The kind of support the agencies responsible for the sector are given is very poor,” Aitsi told Paydirt in Port Moresby. “So as a result, some of the frustrations we’re seeing from our communities are intensifying because of the lack of confidence within the process, and that can only be restored if we have functioning, better resourced government representation.” But Dr Gavin Mudd, a Melbourne-based environmental engineer specializing in mining who regularly visits Papua New Guinea said while the track record of Australian miners in PNG was partly an indictment on government, that didn’t make it a get-out-of-jail-free card. “Miners can’t just complain that government isn’t pulling its weight,” Dr. Mudd said. “At the end of the day they’re in control.” (MPI, 2012).

Another bi cause of landowner agitation is the lack of transparency and communication by developers with affected communities. Many land owners in Papua New Guinea are being “starved of information” and  the developers are not paying enough attention to the risk that presented. Most developers easily underestimated the concerns and impacts of landowners. This is a basic risk management, and you cannot break that sort of perception by being secretive – you’ve got to be open.

Papua New Guinea should by now develop own policies and regulations to guide Sustainable Development. This is the call every Papua New Guinea landowners should raised with their political leaders to hold them responsible enough to promote Sustainable Development.

Given the reality that Papua New Guinea have a total of eight mines, by which three of these are purely gold mines, three gold and silver mines, one copper and gold and one nickel and copper. These make the country one of the world’s resource rich nations, and pumps about three quarters of revenue into the country’s economy. However, the management of mine tailings disposal is said to have been overlooked over the years by government, developers and stakeholders causing a national threat on the health of future generations, particularly on our mass rural population.

According to the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea, It is strongly recommended that the government should seriously look at the environment, health and social impacts of all extractive industries rather than concentrating more on the revenue generation.

There should also be call to Australian Government to impose stricter standards on miner’s overseas practice and the government silence implied consent for repugnant behavior. The Australian government does not seem to mind if the actions of Australian miners lead to the destruction of lives and livelihoods of Papua New Guinean. Papua New Guinea and the Pacific are ripe with opportunities for miners and in so, Papua New Guinea Government needs to ensure it’s ready for it. This means that people who come in and do the right thing by the communities they operate in, and do the right thing by the Government that gives them the license to do so.

Papua New Guinea is a very prospective country. But it’s not just a matter of how many tonnes of metal you’ve got in the ground; it’s actually how you spread the value from that, making sure you generate more benefits than you do impacts. 

Access to pornography via internet a major concern.

The availability and accessibility of illicit material ranging from pornography to demonology and Satanism over the internet is become a major concern, authorities were told in a regional meeting.

The National reported that a regional meet was hosted by the Censorship Office and Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC) on the review of the 1989 Censorship Act in Lae and a major issue raised was the access of pornography via the internet.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church National Youth Director, Reuben Mete, questioned the regulation of uploading and sharing of pornographic and illicit videos on social media networks which he described as dangerous.

NICTA legal services manager, Ivan Milleng, responded that a cyber-crime policy would address these issues. He said sites that share pornography and illicit material would be blocked when the government endorses the policy.


The meeting which attended by the Minister for Community Development, Chief Censor, CLRC Secretary, officials from NICTA and PNG Customs, was a review of the Censorship Act to include electronic media.

PNG's youth speak out.

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/profile.aspx?id=Jenny%20Hayward-Jones

The Lowy Institute's Melanesia Program convened its second PNG New Voices conference in Port Moresby yesterday. We assembled a group of interesting and passionate young people with strong views about the future of their country. They spoke on a range of topics across three key themes: Papua New Guinea's relations with its neighbours, responsible sustainable development and new political engagement.

A PNG New Voices panel session on sustainable development (Andrew Gavin/Kate Uvia) 

Papua New Guinea's relations with its Melanesian neighbours are complex. PNG appears to be somewhat ambivalent about its membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Contributors suggested the government does not involve the people in its management of relations with Melanesian neighbours, leaving some to wonder what the benefits of trade agreements and intra-Melanesia labour mobility agreements are for Papua New Guinea.

The question of support for West Papua was a controversial one. Many Papua New Guineans have sympathies with the independence movement in West Papua but contributors argued the government puts its relationship with Indonesia ahead of popular interest in supporting fellow Melanesians and ahead of lining up with fellow Melanesian Spearhead Group members.

We collaborated with Tanim Graun, a PNG version of the ABC's Q&A program, which looked at the future of the informal economy. Participants quickly renamed the informal economy as the 'people's economy' given that the vast majority of Papua New Guineans are engaged in informal economic activity rather than employed in the formal sector.

Despite the continuing resources boom and forecast economic growth of 21% in 2015, participants acknowledged there would never be enough jobs in PNG's formal economy to support the population. The first shipment of LNG from PNG in the past week has made international headlines but after the construction phase, LNG projects will not deliver the number of jobs required to meet the high expectations of Papua New Guineans.

Increasingly, salaries in the formal sector are insufficient to support the rising cost of living in urban areas in Papua New Guinea, particularly in Port Moresby. Participation in the informal economy, including in activities like selling betel nut (which is now officially banned in Port Moresby) is needed to subsidise the formal economy for many families. Speakers remarked that the systems around transporting and selling betel nut worked better than those for most other goods in PNG. 

The private sector voice was articulate and impassioned at the conference. From more than one contributor we heard that the private sector is bearing the brunt of the apparent decline in educational standards in recent years. Significant investment is required in developing personnel, including those who have graduated from tertiary institutions, in order for them to be fully productive. Some businesses are compelled to buy-in talent or skills from overseas, which has the knock-on effect of putting up their prices. This has impacts in the wider business community.

Suggested solutions included short-term work placements in Australia that could be funded by the Australian aid program in the case of small and medium enterprises (SME); degrees undertaken in Australia could include a year-long work placement to expose PNG students to Australian standards and practices; and private sector peak bodies such as the PNG Chamber of Commerce to be consulted as part of the process of awarding scholarships to identify skills most needed in the labour market.

A strong sense of national identity is often hard to find in Papua New Guinea, where clan, cultural and linguistic identities typically are more important than association with the nation. One speaker, ardent about building national identity, reflected on the factors that made Papua New Guinea unique. PNG is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse nations on earth, with approximately 850 spoken languages. 'Wantoks' (people from the same area or speaking the same language) and large extended family and clan connections are central to society and also provide a social security system where no formal one existed. While these connections were special for PNG, building a national identity would not be possible without higher education standards which allow for better discussions about identity and development.

Reflections on the looming referendum on the future of Bougainville and some unresolved issues from the conflict prompted discussion about the need to prepare for Bougainville's independence, as well as the national identity questions for PNG that would follow what is now an unthinkable prospect for PNG authorities.

Much is expected of PNG's young people. Yesterday's discussion proved that the country's future leaders are already thinking about how to change the country.

Image courtesy of Andrew Gavin.

Social/Community Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

PNG NEW VOICES CONFERENCE

Port Moresby, 29^th May 2014

National Research Institute Conference Room

Plenary Session:  Responsible sustainable development.

Speaking Topic: Social/Community Entrepreneurship and Innovation 

A Talk by Reuben Mete

PNG Consulate-General HE Sumasy Singing;

Retired General Jerry Singirok;

Organizers of the event – Lowy Institute and National Research Institute;

Dignitaries;

Moderator Mr. Paul Barker, Executive Director of Institute of National Affairs in Papua New Guinea; and

My fellow Leaders of Papua New Guinea.

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak at this conference today. This morning I do not wish to be dramatic, but would like to gently draw our attention to an issue that I believe really matters most to our heart–innovation in sustainable communities on a more rural perspective.

Responsible sustainable development is a developing country’s phenomenon and can take us a whole year discussing it. I do not wish to raise my voice in the issue of sustainable developments now and again, all I want is to create PNG, a nation where ‘responsible’ and ‘sustainability’ doesn’t need people to talk about.  The whole reason why we have to discuss this now is I believe human beings are now putting dollars and cents before common sense. Mining industry have been working on sustainable development policies but still have a lot to improve on. The onus, however should not be on investors but on Papua New Guinea to develop own policies and regulations to guide sustainable development.

It is not my intention to justify the level of expectations our rural communities have on sustainable development as many have lag behind basic developments.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the village where I came from we usually walk eight hours even to date to access basic services such as health, education and manufactured goods.

Background

We recently saw the launching of the first shipment of liquefied natural gas of the PNG LNG project.   The Elk/Antelope Gulf LNG and Stanley Gas projects are also coming up. We got Solwara 1 deep sea mining project being the latest to join the mining industry. All of these new projects as well as the existing ones are anticipated to propel our economy.

PNG has a population estimated to be a little over 7 million. Despite significant resource wealth from minerals, oil and gas, forestry and fishing, the vast majority of our population still lives a precarious subsistence farming existence with little or no access to the provisions of a modern state such as education, healthcare, sanitation or infrastructure such as roads.

The feeling is that if they are giving the miner the gold from their land, they are expected gold in return – gold in the form of hospitals, schools, compensation for their customary land.

In his speech to the 30th Australia Papua New Guinea Business Forum and Trade Expo,  Cairns Australia, Sam Koim, Chairman of the Task Force Sweep says and I quote - “I have however noted that globalization has not only marked a new phase in the development of capitalism in our country, it has accelerated the pace of social change. It has infested the desire of individuals and groups to amass wealth. What globalization has not done, among the developing nations such as ours, is the attitude - the desire for capacity building, entrepreneurship, enterprise, productivity, critical knowledge-leadership qualities, hard work, competitiveness, introspection with regard to developing indigenous knowledge and technology. It has robbed the developing nations the traditional culture of independence in productivity, communal efforts at development, crafts and guild production, disorganized the traditional agricultural and production systems that hitherto ensured food on the table of every Papua New Guinean and has rather diverted attention of the people to importation of finished goods, service industry and established the culture of consumerism, dependence and luxury.”

Social Enterprise

Watut River Development Limited (WRD) is a not for profit 100% locally owned social enterprise aiming to add value to the lives of every Papua New Guinean by providing high quality water supply and sanitation at an affordable cost. Given the reality that 4.2 million people in Papua New Guinea do not have access to clean water supply system; WRD has identified the only 30% of the entire 7 million population has access to clean water system and sanitation.

Building infrastructure is a major issue for the Papua New Guinea Government as it takes responsibility for the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure in difficult terrain which is high.  The government and the Papua New Guineans believe that if entire infrastructure plans were implemented it would be unaffordable.  Although foreign investments and donor funding was highly sort after, there was some capacity within Papua New Guinea to provide affordable Water Supply and Sanitation and this is where WRD comes in to play.

We believe that rural and remote communities needed to see more of the benefits of national economic growth, and resource sector-driven growth and we believe we can achieve this by providing quality Water Supply and Sanitation to every Papua New Guinean in a little way we can. Big problem have big solutions too. If I don’t give back to my communities, I wonder who will be able to give back to his or her communities. We need you, you can join us and that is why I come here for.

We are now working on to upscale our programs to service the entire Papua New Guinea population through our Lutheran Youth Network. Which has well over 500,000 youth membership untapped and that is the big advantages we now have to enhance our program going rural. We do not believe in getting donor funding assistance but we believe in providing opportunities and powering local Changemaker to bring change back to their communities. Local problems have local solutions and thus needs people within to drive that change that they themselves wanted to see.

Information Communication Technology (ICT)

My participation in this information pool through ICT has had a lot of benefits to me as a person and also to others through the organization. I believe with ICT, we cannot find remoteness/ rural and isolation as Technology help us build a better World.

The media landscape is now changing rapidly with the arrival of social media. It also presented an opportunity for everyone to get their message to public sphere. I have to thank Digicel for its monopoly service in this rural communities include mine where we usually walk to hours uphill to access its crystal clear coverage’s and have access to ICT.

Conclusion

As I come to a close of my talk, I hope you’d appreciate some contributions our new generations have been doing. In so doing, I have drawn only the social or community entrepreneurship and innovations from my past experiences to share some lights to your thought that Papua New Guineans have potentials to help reaching the unreached and touching the untouched. We should now give the people access to learn for living, than they can make change in their communities themselves. I am glad to say here that the process to do so has already begun.

Thank you for listening.

God Bless you all.

  

Biography

Reuben Mete is the Director of the Youth Desk of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea. He is also the President and CEO of the Union of Watut River Communities Association Inc and Managing Director of Watut River Development Limited, a social enterprise that works in partnership with Morobe Mining Joint Venture to provide clean water and sanitation supplies to rural communities.

Reuben was previously a Spark* Changemaker and President of the PNG University of Technology Morobe Students and Staff Association. Reuben strongly believes that Papua New Guinea needs to invest developing sustainable rural communities where every individual has access to basic health and education services and a reasonable income.

All views expressed on this paper are the opinions of the individual   author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion or position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea.