Floods damage thousands of Irian Jaya phone lines

SORONG, Irian Jaya (JP): Floods disrupted thousands of phone lines in the town of Sorong while the local state-run telephone company worked hard to fix the damage.

Repair work could take one month, a company official said. Residents wanting to make phone calls last week found it necessitated traveling by ship for almost 12 hours to Manokwari town.

Only a few hundred telephone lines from the town's 8,250 lines have been repaired, Cendrawasih Pos reported Monday.

Flooding from the overflowing Remu River which flows through Sorong was caused by heavy rains since early April, inundating homes and public facilities.

A resident, Oktovianus Kalame, 42, died in a landslide.

From Jayapura, Antara reported on Tuesday that about 200 homes and offices in Entrop subdistrict of Jayapura were also under water since rains on Monday night.

An employee of the local administration, Martinus Ayomi, said congestion caused by flooded roads extended his traveling time to work to 2.5 hours. The trip usually takes 30 minutes.

Separately, the agency also reported on Tuesday that thousands of residents along Mamberamo River had contracted frambesia, an infection of the skin mainly affecting teenagers and children. Governor Freddy Numberi said the local council had agreed to start a program to address the problem found in the regencies of Jayapura, Yapen Waropen and Jayawijaya, which were relatively difficult to reach.

From Manokwari, the agency also reported that the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund had extended assistance worth some Rp 1.5 billion to support small-scale irrigation development in Rado village in Wasior subdistrict.

"Funds have been channeled through the supporting infrastructure development program in less-developed villages (P3DT) for the 1999/2000 fiscal year," head of the local Development Planning Board (Bappeda), Sergius Mabuay, said here on Tuesday.

Through the program, each village in the region will receive a some Rp 300 million, he said.

Sergius said he hoped that by developing small-scale irrigation, it would be possible to irrigate the 100 hectares of rice fields there. (34/anr)