For three weeks, the Oro community at the Popondetta block have been without water.
This comes after the elected water committee failed to pay the community’s water bill to Eda Ranu.
This has affected the livelihood of the people, resulting in students not attending school.
This is the first time the water has been cut for more than a fortnight.
This Oro community was set up in the 1960s, and is made up of seven ethic groups from Oro province.
It now has over 10 000 people.
Since the installation of the community tap, a water committee was formed to monitor and charge people for water usage.
Residences here are charged K2 for water every day. In a fortnight, they are expected to pay K28 if they are getting water from the public tap, or K56 from private taps.
Since the closure of water, the water committee has not come clean on why the water was cut. They have also failed to produce a proper financial report.
Residents have been travelling to Port Moresby to fetch water for cooking and other water needs.
They claimed, they have been prompt in paying their water bill, and showed receipts as proof. They have also requested Eda Ranu to install metres in each ethic group to avoid such a situation in the future.
In the meantime, Eda Ranu is working on upgrading the water supply to the community.
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