Arawa rises from ashes to recovery Post-Courier
By PETER KORUGL in Buka
The 12-year crisis has cost Bougainville dearly and one of the biggest costs must be the township of Arawa. The once bustling township of more than 20,000 and the commercial hub of Bougainville has been reduced to a ghost town with mother nature threatening to overrun the place and locals taking over the former mining town. Long-term residents are optimistic that their “Paradise in PNG” in its heydays is slowly rebuilding itself. Local entrepreneurs have opened shops, selling all essential items including drugs to the town’s population among the ruins as commerce picks up momentum. “Cocoa and copra are traditional cash crops in Bougainville. As you must have noticed, the estates that were abandoned are all revived. There are more new plantings too. “And coffee is being introduced and more people are turning to this crop,” Tarcisius Karuai said. Mr Karuai owns Kieta Commodity Exporters. The company has an exporting licence and has made eight shipment of copra and some cocoa to overseas markets. The company exported 1500 tonnes of copra early this month. The volume of exports is growing and Mr Karuai has another competitor on the scene now. “The business is slowly but surely picking up on the Kieta wharf. We are expecting more business,” Michael Tane, a worker on the wharf said. Abandoned cocoa and copra estates are being revived and new plantings are coming up. Very soon these estates will produce to the full capacity, bringing in much needed money that will be injected into the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and Arawa is ideally placed to help this growth. Another positive for Arawa is the announcement by the new ABG President John Momis that the headquarters of his administration will be shifted to Arawa from Buka where it is currently located. “Arawa has the infrastructure in place. It is more central and can be easily accessed by everyone in the region,” Nathan Miringtoro said. Mr Miringtoro, another long-term resident, operates the Sunset Guesthouse in town. Once Arawa becomes the seat of government, the infrastructure in town will be rebuilt, adding value to the fledging commerce and trading activities there at present. Arawa was a mining town. The mine that fed it now lies in ruins. There are serious issues, though, that the region needs to address, everyone agrees. Law and order, weapons disposal, HIV/AIDS are among the prioritites. There is no crime in Arawa today. Women and girls walk around freely, without fear in the nights there. Will Arawa ever get there as the Paradise in PNG? Slowly but surely, it is rebuilding itself from the ashes. |