SENIOR leaders of the New Tenabuti community in northeast Guadalcanal have strongly requested support for their badly deteriorated road.
Pastor Martin Losi in a speech to welcome representatives of the Australian High Commission, two commercial banks, Our Telekom and ADRA last Thursday said although they have been contributing a lot to the economy of the country the condition of their road does not show for it.
He said every time it rains all their vehicles won’t travel out of the village.
Pastor Losi explained their communities have many cocoa plantations and this is the best time for harvesting.
“As you drove here, you’d have seen our ripe cocoa fruits but the poor road condition is a big concern. We can harvest but taking them to buyers in town will be very difficult.
“Every day we pray for the rains not to come. But another problem is when rain doesn’t come for a long time, our water source dries up, so we don’t know which prayer to pray,” he joked.
But seriously, the Director of the villages Selaravo Savings Club – operating since 2008 – Brally Jim Tavalia also echoed the same concern.
“Our communities here have so many cocoa plantations. In high peak harvest periods such as now each village would produce around 400 bags of cocoa monthly.
“This is more than seven thousand dollars each village. However, when the road is bad, most of the farmers wouldn’t take their cocoa to buyers in Honiara,” he explained.
Water too is a problem and Pastor Losi also appealed for help to develop another source which he claimed is better than the current one.
The two leaders made these revelations during the opening of their Selaravo Savings Club-owned store witnessed by representatives of the Australian High Commission, ANZ Bank, Westpac, Our Telekom and ADRA last Thursday.
