Papua New Guinea: The Power of Many Case Study Click on the following links for further information about this case study: Teacher's Notes   Student Activities Introduction This case study, set in the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea, describes the impacts of waste on local environments and communities. It also describes the differences between waste management in a remote village and in a growing town. Profile Location Pacific Ocean 4148 km from Sydney Climate Average temperature 26oCoC Distinct wet season (monsoon) between November and April Population Wewak - 35,000 Bruwan - 60 Language Pidgin English, local dialects and English (official) Economy Agriculture - (exports) copra, coffee, and cocoa crops Local trading Land Ownership Most land is traditionally owned (about 80%) Remainder is in government and private ownership and leasehold History Pre European: The history of the East Sepik region before the arrival of Europeans is barely known. There were no written records and the climate has destroyed physical remains. However, it is believed that the first people arrived more than 50,000 years ago. Papua New Guinea was once joined to Australia and shares many of the same plant and animal species. The township of Wewak, the headquarters of the East Sepik province, was originally the village of Viaq. The people of Viaq traded with the offshore islands of Mushu and Kairiru. Travel and trade between these places was established well before the arrival of the first Europeans. Post European 1545 - Spanish explorers sight the northern coast 1825 - French explorer, D'Urville, camps on Kairiru Island 1885 - North Eastern PNG becomes German New Guinea 1911 - First white contact in Wewak, German District Officer 1914 - WW1, German New Guinea occupied by Australian Forces. 1919 - First Australian patrol post established in Wewak 1920 - PNG becomes Mandated Territory of Australia 1937 - First airstrip built in Wewak 1942 - WW2 Japanese invade and occupy Wewak 1945 - Japanese surrender at Wom Beach, Wewak 1975 - Independence granted to PNG Background Wewak is a harbour town on the coast of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. It is the headquarters of the East Sepik Provincial Government that looks after the whole province. Wewak itself is looked after by the Wewak Town Commission. Wewak has a wharf where ships unload and pick up cargo, a commercial area with shops and offices, many markets, a hospital, an army barracks, schools and an airport. The only access to and from Wewak from other provinces is by plane or ship. There are no road connections due to the high mountains that make up much of Papua New Guinea's landscape. Although most people arrive by air, it is possible to travel by sea from other coastal cities. The beach at Wewak is the landing and launching point for the dozens of boats and canoes that travel between Wewak and the islands of Muschu and Kairiru. It takes up to two hours in an open boat with an outboard motor to reach these islands. Kairiru, the most populated island, has close links with Wewak. For thousands of years, the island and mainland people traded, fought wars and intermarried. Most of Kairiru's people have relatives living in Wewak and vice versa. The people of Wewak today represent many of the tribal areas of the Sepik region. They live in the many villages, settlements and government owned housing estates. A few people live on privately owned land. Local Wewak houses range in style from modern western homes to traditional homes made from local materials. Local people live in the villages. The settlements (sometimes called compounds) house people from outlying villages who want to live closer to work, education and health services. Some of Wewak's settlements have existed for more than one hundred years and the settlers keep strong ties with their own villages. They travel often between "home" and Wewak bringing goods and produce to trade in the markets and in their own settlements. Trading is a large part of the Papua New Guinean way of life. The people of the East Sepik exchange their locally made items or locally grown produce for money or other goods. At the town market in Wewak, or at any one of the many roadside markets, baskets and bilums (traditional string bags), carvings and drums, jewellery and ceremonial clothing are displayed for sale. East Sepik art is famous throughout the world and many overseas collectors come to Wewak especially to buy the work. Of the many hand-crafted items produced, the bilum is the most commonly used. Knotted from string made of hand-rolled bark, these bags are very strong. Right throughout Papua New Guinea women make bilums for their own use and to sell. They are widely traded and the distinct bilum styles of each region or village are seen everywhere and even on babies! Food is also widely traded. Sago and fish, vegetables, greens and fruit, roasted peanuts and smoked shellfish are sold in the markets and along the roadside. The climate, the ocean and the fertile soil combined, usually produce plenty of food. But over the years, contact with the western world has changed the eating and living habits of the people of Wewak. Running water and electricity have introduced washing machines and washing powder, refrigerators and packaged foods, kitchen sinks and cleaning products and many other items of western life. While the benefits of these products and services are enormous, they have also brought the problem of western style waste with them. As the more people change from traditional to modern lifestyles so too does the type and amount of household waste. In the past, household waste was organic and nature took care of it. Villagers would put their waste into piles, burn it, throw it in the sea or into the environment. Imagine the following two actions: A fresh coconut is opened and the cooling milk is drunk to quench thirst in the heat of the day. The flesh may or may not be eaten and the empty coconut is thrown onto the ground. The waste is organic and rots quickly in the tropical climate. A can of soft drink is opened and the cool drink quenches thirst in heat of the day. The empty can is thrown onto the ground. The aluminium container is not organic. It will not rot but will lie on the ground for many years. The empty can may fill with rain water and become a breeding place for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes may carry malaria - a disease which that causes serious illness and death. The contrast between these two actions shows the differences between the waste of the past and the present. Today's waste cannot be disposed of in the old way. Waste Management Issues. Wewak now produces large amounts of organic and non organic waste. Although there is a regular rubbish collection in the Town Commission area, many households still treat their rubbish in traditional ways. It is heaped into piles and left to rot. It is buried in backyards or villages or it is burned. Often the air in Wewak is filled with the smoke of thousands of small rubbish fires. Household waste in Wewak is very similar to our own and, like ours, packaging is a large part of the waste produced. Plastic packaging waste is seen everywhere. Much packaging waste comes from imported items, mainly from China and Australia. The only local packaging waste that is found in large amounts is the tins from tinned fish. There is no recycling program in Wewak. The unsorted rubbish from households in the town district is put into plastic bags. These are collected by a contractor and taken to the rubbish dump on the outskirts of Wewak. Once at the dump, the rubbish truck empties its load of waste onto the land. The newly dumped rubbish is sometimes burned. Sometimes a bulldozer moves the rubbish into larger piles. Sewage is also disposed of in the dump. Some settlements have sewage buckets which are collected and emptied into the lagoon on the edge of the dump. Nearby communities are concerned about pollution from the sewage, the waste piles and the burning rubbish. People and Pollution - Three Stories. Only a road separates the rubbish dump from a nearby settlement and a school, and only a narrow strip of water separates the dump from another settlement. Where there's Smoke... The smoke from the burning rubbish is carried by the wind straight into the grounds and classrooms of the Mongniol Community School. Nine hundred students from grades one to six attend this school. Can you imagine the colour and smell of the smoke from burning plastic, chemical and food waste? The teachers and children from the school are often sick and have to stay away from school. The students understand the problems and the headmaster has complained about the dump for a long time. Until recently nothing had changed. A few years ago, the waste was regularly bulldozed and covered with soil. Neither the school nor the settlement know why this has stopped and nobody is really sure just who sets fire to the rubbish! Creeping Waste Line... The people from the settlement across the road from the dump are also affected by the rubbish. Coming originally from a remote village in the West Sepik, the settlers have lived with the dump for many years. In fact, some of their income is based on the rubbish they collect from the dump. As soon as the rubbish truck arrives, settlers hurry to sort out anything of value before the rubbish is burned. Bottles and aluminium cans are "nambawan" (number one). Bottles are sold for $1.20 a case (24) and cans sell for $8 for 50 kg. The settlers also collect firewood, building materials, old clothes and furniture from the dump which they use themselves, sell and trade. Although the dump brings some money to the settlers, in recent years the rubbish has crept closer to their homes. They are now afraid of the pests and diseases that breed in the dump. Mosquitoes and rats carry malaria and other diseases. The liquid (leachate) that seeps from the rubbish stains both the ground near their homes and the edges of the mangrove swamp. They fear pollution. These settlers complain about the dump. Unsafe Waters Straight across from where the sewage is emptied into the lagoon is a small settlement. The settlers who were originally coastal people rely on fish as part of their food and income. They can see how the sewage is trapped by the tide and believe that the fish may be no longer safe to eat. They worry that not only will people stop buying their fish but also about their children swimming or playing in the lagoon. The people from this settlement also complain. The Power of Many A number of people have tried to make the authorities take notice of the rubbish dump problems. The headmaster, the settlers, the local environmental group and a women's organisation are amongst those who have been separately trying to bring about change. In 1997, the East Sepik Council of Women organised a meeting between the local community and Clean Up the World to discuss the dump and waste management. Amongst the people who came to the meeting were the headmaster from the Mongniol Community School, an elder from the settlement, the director of the Local Environment Foundation, women from the East Sepik Council of Women, and the staff in charge of waste and planning from the Town Commission. Everyone came to hear each others' stories and to discuss solutions. At the end of the meeting the individuals formed a group to ask the government to improve waste management and clean up the town's dump. The individuals had become a group and the power of many was at work. The Town Commission has since removed the rubbish from the corner close to the school. They have covered the ground with fresh soil and topped it with a layer of gravel. The students from the Mongniol Community School have written to the Town Commission to thank them for their efforts. Now the students will keep a close watch on the site and report any burning of rubbish. They have a voice in the future of the dump and are already making a waste plan for their school. They are also part of the power of many. Living With Less Waste In the smaller communities away from the township of Wewak, people live different lives. The inhabitants of thousands of villages live without running water, electricity and modern household appliances. There are no waste, sewage or other government services. People have to manage these issues in their own villages. Bruwan, on the Island of Kairiru, is one such village. Here the villagers live close to the traditional ways of the past. Kairiru is a small, densely forested, volcanic island with small villages dotted around its coastline. Mathew Ulli and his family live in Bruwan which has eleven houses and a total population of 60 people. But the villagers are rarely all at home together. The school children stay with "wantok" (family) who live closer to the school as the daily journey is too long. Other people work in Wewak from time to time and there are always people coming and going from other villages. The houses in Bruwan are built almost entirely of local materials although Mathew's new house has a corrugated iron roof. He says it lasts longer than thatching although it is not as cool. Traditional houses last for about seven years. Then they are dismantled and the piles of natural building materials quickly rot away in the hot, humid climate. Apart from the sleeping houses, there are separate buildings for cooking, food preparation and celebrations. The toilets are huts built on stilts over the sea where the outgoing tide carries the human waste away. Almost all the village food is grown and caught locally. The diet is simple; sago, fresh and dried fish, pork, chicken, taro, yams, coconuts, bananas and any number of leafy greens. There is little household waste in Bruwan. While most of the waste is organic and biodegradable, a few items like torch and radio batteries and plastic containers are increasing and becoming a problem. Mathew has not yet worked out what to do with this new kind of waste. He mainly buries it or throws it in the sea. Some young people who work on the island are asking visitors to take their waste away with them. There is no running water or electricity in Bruwan. Body, clothes and dish washing all take place in a nearby stream that comes from the crater lake on the summit of the island. The water is clean because their are no upstream activities to pollute it and animals are kept away from the stream banks. Water for drinking and cooking is collected furthest up stream. Dishes are washed below this point, followed by clothes and finally bodies. Mathew would like to pipe the water into the village to make life easier. He knows the benefits of this and is also aware of the changes it would cause to his people and the environment. Life without electricity has its advantages and disadvantages. There is less waste but fewer conveniences and people do the work of the machines we take for granted. There are no refrigerators, television sets, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, computers, power tools or toasters. Kerosene lamps or candles provide the light for cooking and telling stories by. News comes from battery powered radios and there is a telephone in the next valley that can be used during emergencies. In the wet season from November to April, Kairiru is frequently cut off from the mainland. Tropical storms make the seas too dangerous for small, open boats to safely make the journey. Many homes and crops are destroyed by the storms. During these times the village people suffer great hardship. They cannot get their produce to the markets and themselves to medical services. Whether to live on Kairiru or not is a difficult choice for many people whose family ties are on the island. The conveniences of modern life are weighed up against living a simpler, but often harder, way of life. Most people who have moved away from the island talk about "going home" to live one day. As one islander who now lives in Wewak says, "I would like to return to live in my family's village one day. I would like my children to experience village life and learn about their heritage. Our people are not afraid of hard work. They know it is healthier but living in the village is only better if health and education needs are met."   Top © Commonwealth of Australia