The four (4) village communities surrounding the PNGLNG Plant site in Central Province will now have easy access to basic health services with the opening of a brand new Level 2 Community Health Post in Porebada village.

The new Porebada Health Post.

Costing just over a million kina (K1m), the health post was funded by Gas Resources PNGLNG Plant limited (GR-PNGLNGPL) through its 30% Community Infrastructure Trust Fund (CITF) portion of landowner benefits from the PNGLNG Project.

It will serve a population of close to 30,000 people in Porebada, Boera, Papa and Rearea villages who have previously had to travel to Port Moresby for treatment.

Under the leadership and supervision of the Peter Vagi, the director representing Porebada village on the board of GR-PNGLNGPL, the project was completed on time and under budget.MRDC Managing Director Augustine Mano thanked director Peter Vagi and the community for making it possible to bring this infrastructure to the people.

“You are the symbol of corporation that is rare to find in project areas. The three directors including the Chairlady, I would like to thank you all for providing leadership to provide the much needed infrastructure services to the four villages” he said.

The health post comes complete with patient beds, a delivery room, emergency procedure room, consultation/treatment room, admin & storage room, training/meeting room, utility & general purpose room, a drug store and an outpatient/waiting area. The plans/design are compliant with the National Department of Health (NDoH) Standards and has been endorsed by the department.

GRPNGLNGPL has also partnered with key developers such as Exxon Mobil, NDoH and landowner Company Laba Holdings to create and deliver these significant impact projects to the communities.

“I would like to thank Exxon Mobil for providing all the equipment to make this project operational. Thank you for the partnership that you’ve provided, like you did with all our other infrastructure” Mano said.

The company believes in improving the livelihood of the people by focussing on health and education, having built classrooms in Rea-Rea, teacher’s complex in Boera, and recently opened classrooms in Papa and now the health centre in Porebada along with the Ambulance for support and emergency purposes.

An ambulance was also purchased for the health centre by GRPNGLNGPL and handed over last year to the community to assist in transporting patients to Port Moresby whilst the health centre was being built.

Mr Mano said “I want you to be proud that you are leaders of delivering such services like this. It’s not about royalty that you get which disappears. It’s not about investment for the future generation it’s about improving the quality of life for our people now”.

He assured the community, that as long as this PNGLNG is there and as long as there was a fund for community infrastructure, His management and directors would make sure that much needed services that complement the government services will be provided and enhanced so that we improve the quality of life for beneficiaries.

GR-PNGLNGPL has to date invested over three and a half million kinas (K3.5m) in community infrastructure projects in just two years of operations under the management of MRDC.