Given the demand for access to clean and safe water, and proper sewerage services in Rabaul town in East New Britain province, Water PNG plans to conduct a major overhaul of the current water reticulation system. PNG Water Board Chairman Aiwa Oimi and his technical team met with the Rabaul Community and Business Council (RCBC), ENB provincial government and Rabaul District officials recently at the Rabaul Hotel and did a presentation on the state of Water PNG maintenance and improvement of services in Rabaul. He told the gathering that with Rabaul being one of the attractive tourist and investment destinations, tourists and investors may want to come but on the condition that there is a quality water and sewerage system. Mr. Oimi was pleased with the RCBC for coming forward and putting Water PNG in contact with government authorities in Rabaul to chart the way forward. “The business community is powerful, you have to guide and tell your leaders that Water PNG can assist, but we need the initial capital from your leaders while we can top up from our end, to do the job,” he said. Mr. Oimi said discussions have begun with a driller to look at various sites in Rabaul. Meantime, the Chief Operation officer Mr. Kenneth Zale, when explaining more on the upgrade plans said a second bore will be constructed to improve the water supply system in Rabaul as currently there is only one water reservoir at Red Light section in town, which is the lifeline for Rabaul. “Right now, we have a 723-kiloliter tank but looking at upgrading to 900 kiloliters to meet the demand,” Mr. Zale said. “Our technical team have been liaising with the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) to do ground water investigation to find out where the water is before we start drilling. But before that can happen, we are aware there are couple of abandoned bores lying along Wester Street and following brief discussions with the provincial government and plan going forward is to investigate those bores first,” Mr. Zale said. He said unfortunately with the aging reticulation with old pipes also buried 10 meters underground due to volcanic ash build-up, 41 percent of water is lost. However, Mr. Zale appealed to appropriate government authorities and the business community to make available development plans for Rabaul and Kokopo so Water PNG can plan and do projection for 20 years population. The visit by the Water PNG team was a four in one trip to talk about the water supply system in Rabaul, Kokopo, Kerevat and Palmalmal.