06/01/2026
Water Project in Ward 12 – Part 1
The idea for a water project in Ward 12 of Tufi LLG came from the Kabuni community itself, during Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) planning supported by IOM and the Northern Provincial Disaster Centre, under former councillor Leonard Kunita.
With funding from USAID, IOM working with the Oro Provincial Disaster Centre, the Provincial Health Authority, and local labour, built a gravity-fed water system.
A dam was constructed high in the mountains, and by 2020 water was piped over 8.3 km to three villages: Kabuni, Kuririka, and Baga.
However, four villages (Orede, Leiloa, Goodenough, and Komoa) and several smaller settlements were left unconnected.
The water system also lasted less than a year.
Although some pipe damage was initially blamed on local disputes, later repairs revealed that most of the polypipes had melted underground due to repeated grass fires during prolonged dry seasons.
By 2021 we registered the Tufi Youth Arise Movement Inc. In 2022 we met to discuss what projects should we pursue. There was overwhelming interest to restore the water supply.
There were skepticisms from many that it would not work, and some even suggested that “Kabuni was blacklisted” by donors as the youth had destroyed the initial efforts - again, most of the destruction were indeed by fire as we later discovered.
We subsequently applied for and started receiving grants.
Part 2 will discuss the current work underway.
(There is an untold story of how friends and families related to Ward 12 worked hard in the background to direct the water supply to Kabuni villages in the initial project - they know who they are, and the villagers will always be grateful).
