las Islas Salomón

Community Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project (CIRP)

Road repair work progressing well - Published in the "Solomon Star" 18 December 2003

Repair work is progressing well along the White River-Ndoma road, West Guadalcanal. The emergency repair of the 10 kilometre run-down road is being carried out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – International Labour Organisation (ILO) Community Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project (CIRP). Funding for the project comes from the Government of Japan. “Due to huge backlog of maintenance and poor drainage, this road was in a very poor condition and a big constraint in providing easy road access to large number of communities. “The spot improvement works on this road will bring in a big relief to Kakabona population and other neighboring areas and also provide easy access to Honiara residents to various beach resorts in the area,”

Mukesh Gupta, the project’s chief technical adviser, said. He added that the scope of work under this project comprises of re-shaping of the road, including filling in of all the pot-holes with good quality river/coronous gravel and improving road side drainage. Yesterday, Mr Gupta led a high-level delegation and inspected the ongoing repair work of the road.

The delegation comprised of the Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of Japan Kiyoshi Takahama, Infrastructure and Development minister Bernard Giro, Lands minister Siriake Usa, and Acting UNDP Coordinator Shaahi Nair. Mr Takahama, whose government provided more that US$1 million through the UN Trust Fund for Human Security, said he was pleased to note that work to improve the road is progressing well. “I believe infrastructure facilities are important to the improvement of the well-being of all humans”. “Infrastructure facilities always lead to economic activities, health and educational services and the list goes on. “In this case, the road from White River to Ndoma is vital for its especially, where it means an access to health and education services, agriculture and fishery production for the rural population, “ Mr Takahama said. He added that it was satisfying to note that Japan’s contribution to this project will greatly assist mainly the rural population – an effort that is in place for the improvement of human security of the people,” he said. In addition, Mr Takahama said he was pleased that the rehabilitation of infrastructure facilities has created employment opportunities for more that 2,000 people, especially ex-combatants and is geared towards peace-building.

Road repair brings great relief to users - Published in the "Solomon Star" 18 December 2003

Road users of west Guadalcanal have expressed satisfaction with the ongoing repair works of the White River-Ndoma road, saying it was a relief driving and traveling on a smooth road. The ongoing works is a Community Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project (CIRP) funded by the Japanese government through the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security. The Japanese government provided a grant of more than US$1 million, and the project is jointly executed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Commenting on the progress of the work and it result it brought so far, car owner Eddie Sale highly commended the Japanese government for funding the road improvement project. He said for the last 15 years he had lived in Honiara, he had never seen any improvement of the 17 kilometre road. “At least I have started to enjoy driving along this road since repair work has started,” Sale said.

He also noticed that since the upgrading of the run-down road, tasks are now extending their services into the west Guadalcanal area because of the amount road. One bus driver Ricky Honi said he was glad to see some improvement done on the road. He stated that for many years, bus owners had found it difficult to travel down the western side because of the poor conditions of roads. “This prevented us from extending our services to as far down as Kakabona area. “But now that the road was upgraded, I hope bus owners will resume their services to as far down as Ndoma” he said.

Another traveller, William Gara of Visale said the project is very helpful for the truck owners in providing transport for people who travel everyday to Honiara. “This is especially helpful when providing transport for those who come to Honiara to sell their products.“ he said. He said in the past years the truck owners have experienced difficulties because of the poor condition of road. Gara added that it normally took him four hours to drive from Visale to Honiara. “But since road Improvement has started, it only took him only one hour,” he said. Mr Gara said the road was in poor condition and is a constraint to providing easy access to a large community. “The spot improvement work on this road has brought great relief to the Kakabona population and those who use the road on a daily basis.” he added.

Más información

• Discussion Paper: Road Rehabilitation & Maintenance Strategy in Solomon Islands - PDF 236 Kb
  Mukesh Gupta, International Labour Organization