BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
CONSENT is given for a ‘telecommunication tower’ to be installed in Koloe Village area, Northeast Choiseul.
In a support letter last Wednesday addressed to the Ministry of Communication and Aviation (MCA) for the installation of a communication tower at Koloe, the ‘Koloe United Church Community’ informs Solomon Islands government of their approval.
Around a month ago, the ‘government communication infrastructure group’ was reported visiting Katario Ward 13 at Northeast Choiseul to discuss erecting a telecommunication tower at Katario.
The government communication infrastructure group met with Church leaders, Chiefs, elders and prominent figures of the communities at Susuka and Koloe in the same week, raising awareness before the possibility of a survey can be carried out.
As unease for better telecommunication network coverage along Katario Ward 13 has been for a while now, Koloe Village has stepped up to give consent for a telecommunication tower to be set up in their land area to address their concern.
“The community has met on numerous occasions and has unanimously approved the installation of such infrastructures.
“As we write the community has to travel to either Pangoe [one hour] to the east or to Bangara [40 minutes] to the west by outboard motor [OBM] to access any mobile network coverage. The installation of such facilities will elevate the lives of the people living in this area equally with the rest of Solomon Islands.
We hope that your Office will recommend to the national government to approve this facility to be installed in our village,” said Koloe United Church Community.
The support letter is signed by four members of the ‘Koloe United Church Community’ namely Chief Philemon Pitavoqa representing Lukutoboro Tribe, Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) for Katario Ward 13 Hon Ronald Zakele, Chairman Leader, Mr Rence Pitukana and Congregation Head Mr Johnson Bate.
Early this year, the MPA for Katario Ward 13 Hon Ronald Zakele on behalf of his people made call to the government and responsible authorities for the improvement of the telecommunication network along with their district reasoning that communication is very important.
Mr Zakele explained that from a distance, the only network tower previously servicing them was the Telekom network tower at Ogho, Northwest Choiseul.
Since the Telekom tower at Northwest Choiseul was closed last December, telecommunication has been a problem for the people of Katario Ward.
To this date, the people of Katario have to travel two to three hours by 40-horse powered OBMs to their provincial capital at Taro Station in order to communicate through telecommunication systems.
“Land is available, free of dispute as there are ownership documents. We only call for network service to be set up at our area for communication to improve,” said Zakele.
“Continuous travelling instead to Taro Station for communication purposes is very costly.
“Ever since the Coronavirus [Covid-19] pandemic and Covid-19 community outbreak, Choiseul Province is one of the provinces being far behind on updates because of poor communication facilities.
“Telecommunication in other provinces continues to be at service while this is not the case for us.”
Mr Zakele said they had applied to the Telekom Company last year 2021 since it is the network service mainly used in Choiseul, but have still not received a response from them as well.
