Sharing the Future - Young Papua New Guineans

As part of Bismark Ramu Group’s second last patrol for 2014, a team of
community facilitators visited a community called Abbef.

Abbef community is a coastal hamlet of the Gidaget people situated in
Ward One of Ambenob Local Level Government in the Madang District of
Madang Province. This community of people, who are part of the 80-85%
of the population in Papua New Guinea, depend on the natural
environment as the main provider of their basic needs. As for the
Abbef community, mangrove ecology plays a vital role in their daily
lives. For instance, for housing: posts, frames and thatch roofs are
harvested from the mangrove tree and sago palms that grow in there.
Starch from sago including fish and clams make up their meals. Fertile
land along the mangrove and river are used for growing food and other
crops to sell for income. The streams feeding the mangroves are their
source of water consumptions.

Following a request from Mr Jawas, a prominent leader in the Gidaged
area, Rosewitha, Schola, Palau and Rachel visited Abeff community to
assess his claims of pollution by the waste disposal system from the
nearby RD Tuna Canning factory.

According to the patrol report, a formal meeting was held with
representatives from the affected communities to learn about their
ordeal. It was gathered that since 1995 the community has been
witnessing and experiencing a series of tragedies due to the
additional substance from the tuna factory into their waterways.
Tragedies such as murky swamp-like water as opposed to the once
crystal clear water, chronic skin diseases, unseasonable perishing of
clams and housing materials and the contamination of their water
consumption source.

Since then their attempts to get the RD Tuna Company and the
responsible government authorities in the province to address these
issues have been frustratingly unsuccessful. The community reached out
to BRG in the hope that their ordeal can be publicized to get the
attention of relevant audiences.

Following is a call by Rachel to any mangrove expert who can
assist in this campaign, which was posted on Facebook last week.
Pictures are attached.

“Mothers crying, fathers crying, children crying, who helps who
anymore in this life, in our country Papua New Guinea. Who else do we
tell our problems to if the one you and I voted for is not going to,
doesn't even care to listen and pay attention. MPs and Governors and
the Prime Minister. Again, yet another corporation, the RD Tuna
Cannery in the Madang Province is making the Mis/Talitin people to
suffer, because of the waste it dumps into their river system which in
turn flows into the mangroves and into the sea. The river that brings
life to their crops, mangroves & everything in it, the gardens and the
people themselves. The mangroves are dying, plants growing along the
river bed are being clogged by these green-like cloths, washed
downstream from the RD outlet. Fish and the famous kina shells mostly
found in mangrove systems are dying after getting swollen to some
extend, and the water that's supposed to be crystal clear is now
murky-dusty-milky brown. If you're a mangrove expert or knows a
mangrove expert, do inbox me please for the sake of these suffering
people.”