Biomaterial Database

Village rural water supplies in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. 1982

D J Wohlfahrt, and K Kukyuwa

The 1980's have been declared the "International Water Supply and Sanitation Decade". The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government has committed itself to spending K2.5 million between 1982-1985 on rural water supplies. The experience for such a programme in the Western Highlands is reviewed. Between 1975 and June 1981 there were 101 installation, 69 of which were inspected. Of these, 40.6% were working. Within one year 40% had broken down; after 4 years, 90% had broken down. Contributing factors to break downs were; the use of a cheap and inefficient hand pump on wells; use of plastic rather than metal pipes in reticulated water supplies; weaknesses in the design of reticulated supplies; and difficulties with regular maintenance. It is recommended that the government take steps to solve these problems before it commits itself to a significantly increased expenditure on rural water supplies.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010219	Papua New Guinea	A country consisting of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and adjacent islands, including New Britain, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, and New Hanover in the Bismarck Archipelago; Bougainville and Buka in the northern Solomon Islands; the D'Entrecasteaux and Trobriand Islands; Woodlark (Murua) Island; and the Louisiade Archipelago. It became independent on September 16, 1975. Formerly, the southern part was the Australian Territory of Papua, and the northern part was the UN Trust Territory of New Guinea, administered by Australia. They were administratively merged in 1949 and named Papua and New Guinea, and renamed Papua New Guinea in 1971.	New Guinea, East,New Guinea, Papua
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012423	Rural Health	The status of health in rural populations.	Health, Rural
D014871	Water Microbiology	The presence of bacteria, viruses, and fungi in water. This term is not restricted to pathogenic organisms.	Microbiology, Water
D014881	Water Supply	Means or process of supplying water (as for a community) usually including reservoirs, tunnels, and pipelines and often the watershed from which the water is ultimately drawn. (Webster, 3d ed)	Supplies, Water,Supply, Water,Water Supplies