Having access to natural resources is now becoming a problem for Langalanga people in the Malaita province.
This was revealed by a concern Langalanga Chief George Jeremiah Gulaewale in an interview with the Solomon Star on Wednesday.
Chief Gulaewale said having access to land to make garden and accessing bush materials for house building is a daily issue that his people of Langlanga has been battling for some times now but never let it known to the public.
Mr. Gulaewale told this paper that it is now time that he must come out and revealed to the public the truth about the struggle that they faced in their home province.
The worrying chief said, unlike other parts of Malaita where people have equal access to land resources and marine resources to sustain their daily livelihood, he said Langalanga is a very different story.
“We don’t really have access to land to make garden and most of the times we trade fish, shell money and money for garden goods and just how long would that last for our current generation and future generation,” he said.
“Given the current increase in population, competition for resources is even bigger than before and to make things worse our fellow Malaitans who own lands, most have refused to allow us to garden on their lands these days,” he added.
“I have to admit that most of us live only on one meal per day as food is getting extremely hard to find and now we Langalanga people feel like refugees in our own country,” he said.
He said Langalanga people are experiencing a real issue that needs to be address where he is calling on the current national government and the current provincial government of Malaita to find ways to help them settle the long standing issue.
He said in the past, inland people usually allow Langalanga people to freely farm their land to help sustain their daily life where he said this practice is rarely seen this days as Langalanga people are now victims of what they have no control over.
By BIRIAU WILSON SAENI
In Auki
