Sirinumu Dam

About

The Sirinumu Dam is an important piece of infrastructure within Papua New Guinea, providing both water and electricity to the electrical grid of the capital Port Moresby. The dam itself is located outside of Port Moresby, in Central Province. Its hydroelectric power generation produces most of the power for the city. At times when the dam has been shut down, either due to disputes with local landowners or due to low water levels, there have been water and electricity shortages in the city. The dam was built by the Australian authorities, which governed the Territory of Papua and New Guinea at the time, from 1958 to 1963. It was built on what remains to this day the customary land of the Koiari people, following agreements made with the landowners. Since the 1970s, local landowners have claimed that the agreements have not been honoured by either the Australian government or later Papua New Guinean governments, and that they themselves lack consistent access to clean drinking water and electricity.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.