Post Courier
News Tuesday 19th April, 2011

Kayakers pledge support for Watuts

By GABRIEL LAHOC

THREE young adventurers from New Zealand have pledged to the mine impacted communities along the Watut River that they will assist in giving international exposure to destruction of the river from water pollution.

Barney Young, Shannon Mask, Jordan Searle from New Zealand’s South Island were on a kayaking expedition around Morobe province and joined forces with the Watuts, Labu and Markham people who converged at a public forum last Friday in Lae after kayaking down the Watut river, to voice their concern against lack of political support to their suffering.

Barney was given the opportunity to address a packed Sir Ignatius Kilage stadium, where he promised on behalf of his countrymen to spread the word back in New Zealand and online.
They aim to get as much people to know about the destruction to the Watut river which is one of the best white water rafting river in the Southern Hemisphere.

In a separate interview after the forum, Barney, Shannon and Jordan described the Watut river as an amazing river which its tourist attraction.

Apart from their stance against the Watut river destruction, they also spoke of the friendliness of the locals which was contradicting to the advice they got from foreigners and travel agents.

Another interesting thing they noticed is the high costs of services in towns, especially the use of internet. The trio are currently tackling the fast flowing Busu river in Nawaeb district, starting upstream at a point where there is no record of kayaking taking place there, with no guide which makes it more interesting.

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