Paradise Island

A Saturday trip to Kranket Island, two miles north of the town and the start of a chain of islands along the coral reef running 20 or 30 miles northwards.  One of the staff from my residential compound comes with me as a guide and un-needed bodyguard and we catch one of the small outboard powered boats that continuously ply between Madang and nearby islands

The Island is beautiful with both traditional and modern metal clad houses set in manicured lawns and shaded by many trees making my umbrella superfluous. No vehicles, no litter, no shops or industry. Electricity was brought here a few years ago by a cable laid under the deep shipping channel and I wonder how the cost of that would have compared to use of photo-voltaics. Water is from a mixture of wells and rain water butts, usually 2000 litres.  Everyone is very friendly and only one dog barks at us, and he is quickly brought to heel by his owner. Brightly coloured dugout fishing canoes are evident and children swim in sandy inlets.

Back in town I find that the Island has doubled in population during the last ten years, many being local people of the same clan who own land in Madang or simply commute to work and shop in town. Environmental health staff from my office visited the island earlier this year to recommend safety practices for the wells after a suspected cholera case and complaints about the often brackish taste of the water. The preferred solution is a mains supply from the mainland although the rainwater source seems satisfactory and how expensive is sea water conversion nowadays?

Near to the flashy new Chinese mining headquarters is a Chinese restaurant called the ‘Hong Bao’ which loosely translates into English as “Brown Envelope” – methinks someone is being satirical!

 Island canoe

 Kranket Island

 More Kranket Island

 Security post at my housing compound

 Cholera isolation section at the hospital