By Scott Waide – EM TV News, Lae
The dry spell affecting much of the country is starting to affect the provision of government services in the Bulolo District.
Water tanks at the Bulolo Police Barracks are running dry and getting cooking and drinking water is becoming increasingly difficult as small creeks nearby start to dry up.
The Bulolo Police Barracks is where 20 families live.
They depend partly on a tree irrigation system supplied by Bulolo Forest Products. But the system is unreliable.
“We get water when the taps are turned on,” says Dick Fofin, a police officer stationed in Bulolo. “We depend heavily on the water tanks. No we don’t have any water left.”
The nearby creeks are starting to dry up and this means making long journeys with 200 litre drums to faraway creeks.
In small townships like Bulolo, the effects of the dry spell is not as severe as the outer lying rural areas where food sources are being destroyed by the weather.
Today, Bulolo MP, Sam Basil announced that the district administration was sending a small amount of food rations to a few villages in the Bulolo District where food gardens have been destroyed by the dry weather.
For now, people are using food stores they have left or the food left over from their sun baked food gardens. But if the drought conditions continue, Morobe, like other provinces will face a crisis.
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