URGENT STEPS NOW TAKEN TO TACKLE PROBLEMS: WEAPE
The Kirakira hospital. Photo credit: Bond University.
The Premier for Makira Ulawa Province says his Government is now taking urgent steps to address the waste disposal site issue for the Kirakira Hospital.
Thomas Weape made the assurance after health workers at the Hospital issued a 14-day notice to the Makira Provincial Executive on Monday.
Following the notice, the Hospital also scaled down its services due to issues with waste disposal and water shortage problems.
Speaking to SIBC News, Premier Weape says his Executive has identified a temporary dump site for the Hospital and work is currently underway.
“After the issuing of this 14-day notice, just for everybody’s information, the Executive has met yesterday, 24th of this month and we have made an urgent decision to secure a site for hospital waste disposal. The site is just close to Kirakira and is on Government land, and so it has already been identified yesterday afternoon and excavation work to clear the site has started and soon dumping of waste will continue.”
The Makira Ulawa Premier adds, his Provincial Executive will later locate and acquire a suitable site to dump the hospital’s wastes.
“We will try to acquire the land, arrangements have been made with a few landowners because that’s where the difficulty lies. Waste dumping requires land and we have to find it, but the Province doesn’t have land. Landownership here remains with the landowners, who cannot allow the Province to go out and just dump rubbish anywhere it wishes. We need to go through the right process to acquire land. So the long term measure now is that land acquisition process will follow so that we secure a permanent site for waste dumping.”
Meanwhile, the Makira Ulawa Province Premier says his Government is doing its best to address water shortage issues at the Kirakira Hospital.
Premier Thomas Weape says the water shortage problem has been a long standing issue and his Government will address it as soon as the Province has enough funds.
“The Provincial Government is trying its best to address these issues. In terms of water at the moment as soon as we get funds then we will try to improve water supply at Kirakira.”