BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
CALL by the people of Katario Ward 13 at North-east Choiseul for improvement of telecommunication network along their district for accessing communication is soon to be granted.
Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) for Katario Ward Hon Ronald Zakele informed Sunday Isles in receiving a phone call yesterday from his village people that the ‘government communication infrastructure group’ visited their Ward to discuss erecting a telecommunication tower at Katario.
The government communication infrastructure group has met with Church leaders, Chiefs, elders, and prominent figures of the community at Susuka on Monday and at Koloe on Tuesday this week, according to Mr. Zakele.
“On talks for development of additional telecommunication towers, the government communication infrastructure group has held discussions and raised awareness at Katario before the survey team will go to work on the ground,” said Zakele.
“First, the group has already held talks with the communities at Katario. They have reached and discussed this positive communication development at Susuka and Koloe villages being the biggest villages in Katario Ward as our people look forward to this development.
“Though we have challenges during this pandemic stage, we are still trying our best with developments. Our previous concern of no telecommunication tower at Katario purposely to access communication is starting to have a green light.”
Early this year, the MPA for Katario Ward on behalf of his people made the call to the government and responsible authorities for the improvement of the telephone network along with their district reasoning that communication is very important.
Hon 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 Outboard Motors (OBMs) to their provincial capital at Taro Station 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 in our area for communication to improve,” said Zakele.
“Continuous traveling instead to Taro Station for communication purposes is very costly.
“Ever since the Coronavirus [Covid-19] pandemic and Covid-19 community outbreak, Choiseul is one of the provinces 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 in 2021 since it is the network service mainly used in Choiseul, but are still waiting for a response to date.
