| The PNG Waterboard is looking for international expertise and technical options |
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LTHOUGH
Papua New Guinea is blessed with a plentiful water supply – enormous
rivers and abundant rainfall – most of the population is unable
to access this vital commodity. The explanation lies in PNG’s geographical
location, which is among the most vulnerable to “events of extreme
climate variability”, the technical term for natural disasters
such as floods and droughts.
Supplying fresh drinking water to the majority of the people of PNG
is the long-term aim of the Papua New Guinea Waterboard.
Managing
Director Patrick K. Amini
says, “Under the public health plan, something like 50 percent
of our population are targeted to have access to safe drinking water,
and that is the area we are focusing on.
“Of course we are not going to achieve that over the next ten years,”
he adds. “It is a long-term objective.”
The current level of access is around 20 percent, and the board’s
objective is to make provision for PNG’s 20 provincial centres
and then move on to the 89 district towns in the rural areas. These
can then act as bases from which water can be provided to the villages.
Ahead
of its upcoming privatisation, the PNG Waterboard’s financial situation
has been overhauled as it faces the challenges of balancing the need
for serving the general interest with those of a profit-minded entity.
It has received funding from the Asian Development Bank which has provided
technical assistance and loans to develop the water and sewerage programmes.
Help has also come from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
and the EU, and there is plenty of grant financing for water projects.
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Mr
Amini says, “The board and management agree fully that in our industry
we should develop public-private partnerships, and whether we can be
fully privatised is another issue altogether.
“Our market is very small, with a customer base of only about 22,000,
and our business centres are geographically separated. All the financial
issues have to be taken into account. Technical issues do not feature
that much because technically we can provide services at a certain cost,
but of course the main issue when you want to bring in a private operator
is usually money.”
The
board is looking to develop closer links with Europe, for example by
setting up pre-paid water meters in line with a British-developed system,
in order to give the responsibility to customers of being able to buy
to a certain value.
Mr Amini explains the government is paying close attention to areas
of infrastructure such as water that impact on the effectiveness of
the economy. “Water, electricity and telecommunications, they are
being addressed very closely. At the Waterboard we want to be able to
assist the government by corporatising our entities much more than in
the past.
| Plentiful natural resources, but getting safe drinking water to everyone is a challenge |
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“We have to get to a state where we have a mixed objective but focus primarily on providing good clean water; that is a public health priority. If, in the process we want to improve the business and provide water and sewerage, we will do so to the business or commercial sector. That is the uniqueness of our industry and that is the way we want to be able to develop it.”
As part of government policy, a Water Resources Board has been established, providing services to eleven districts so far. The board is particularly interested in groundwater resources, where potential exists for development in district water supply.
Business opportunities for the UK are good on the island, not only in the water and sewerage service but in other utilities such as electricity, where the access level is presently around 30 percent. Mr Amini believes that the UK can provide expertise and experience.
“We want to be able to accommodate not only international expertise but also up-to-date practices in terms of technical options that we can utilise to provide water and sewerage services to our people,” he says.
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