THE Sohe District Development Authority (SDDA) under the leadership of MP and Chairman Hon. Henry Jons Amuli is rolling out rural housing scheme as one of the priority programs to improve housing and living standards of people in the district.
During the launching of the housing scheme at Mawae community in the remote Kira Local Level Government (LLG) on Thursday (30th Jan 2025) last week, total of 60 families have received 20 roofing iron sheet each with ridge caps and nails.
This brings the total to 150 families on the first batch of roofing iron sheet distribution in the entire Kira LLG.
Mr. Amuli said Kira is one of the remote LLG in Sohe which is not yet linked by road and the dream of an ordinary family having a good house to rest is very difficult and unachievable.
“As a responsible government, we felt that improving housing for our people is important for families to have a decent home to rest. While our long-term vision is to connect the LLG by road through the establishment of our Sohe District Works unit, this will take time and will involve a lot of costs.
“In the meantime, while working on connecting our districts, we decided to roll out rural housing schemes for families to have a decent home to live,” Mr. Amuli said.
He said there are five wards under Kira LLG and 30 families under each ward have received 20 sheets of roofing irons with ridge caps and nails under the first batch of distribution.
“So in total, 150 families have received and that has costs us K1 million. Much of this cost is consumed by transport and logistics costs – over K600,000 when purchasing and transporting it up to Kira.”
Mr. Amuli said another K1 million was allocated by the DDA for solar panel distribution with an initial payment of K600,000 already made to a supplier in Port Moresby.
Once the remaining balance of K300,000 is paid, solar distribution will commence in Kira LLG following the list of roofing iron recipients.
Mr. Amuli said the DDA will allocated another K2 million this year for the rural housing scheme, K1 million each to be rolled out in the remote Tamata LLG and Kokoda LLG as part of the first batch.
He said once the first batch is completed in the four LLGs of Kira, Tamata, Kokoda and Higaturu, second and third batch will be rolled out based on funding availability and allocation by the DDA until ever family received.
