Landowners’ protest disrupts power, water supplies for Papua New Guinea capital

Thousands of residents of Papua New Guinea’s capital suffered a shutdown of water and power on Tuesday as disgruntled landowners stopped the operations of a crucial reservoir and hydro-power plant.

The Koiari owners of the Sirinumu Dam, which supplies water for the capital Port Moresby and the Rouna hydro-power station, undertook the action because Papua New Guinea’s government had not paid them 15 million kina (U.S. $4.1 million) of royalties promised since 2018.

“Police are proceeding with caution to engage with those involved in the shutdown of water and power generation facilities to ensure there is no further damage and to have services restored,” Police Commissioner David Manning said in a statement. 

State-owned PNG Power told Port Moresby residents on Tuesday morning to expect “heavy” load shedding – a euphemism for power cuts – due to the protest action.

PNG Water said the landowners had stopped the supply of water to a treatment plant that supplies Port Moresby.

“Therefore there is no water being supplied to the city until further notice,” the utility said in an outage notice.

At least one hospital in Port Moresby scaled down its operations to emergency services only, according to a provincial health authority notice seen by BenarNews.

Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country with more than nine million people, grapples with challenges such as corruption, lack of roads and basic healthcare in many regions as well as frequent tribal violence.

The country has one police officer for about every 1,800 people – nearly four times less than the level recommended by the United Nations to ensure law and order, according to a report published by the Griffith Asia Institute earlier this year.

The protesters believe corruption is the reason for why the government hasn’t made the payments to the Koiara who own the land, said a landowner who did not want to be named.

“Delay in making payments lies within the Finance and Treasury Department,” the landowner told BenarNews.

Protesters had blocked the road to the Sirinumu Dam with trees, as shown in photos circulating online. 

As of nightfall in Port Moresby on Tuesday, the water and power supply was still disrupted.

The police statement said discussions were underway “at the political level” and their progress would help determine what steps police could take next.

Preparations would be made to intervene to end the protest but only as a last resort, it said.

“I appreciate that the landowners of Koiari have grievances that they are seeking to rectify but causing harm and distress to other people is not the way to resolve this issue,” Manning, the police commissioner, said.