OIA: Help is on the way for NI

Office for Insular Affairs assistant secretary Esther Kia’aina has finally responded to Northern Islands Mayor Jerome K. Aldan’s pleas to develop Pagan and says that measures are already being taken with several U.S. agencies.

Aldan initially met with Kia’aina in June this year where he formally sought help and assistance from OIA.

Majority of what was spoken included a request for Internet connections for communications, distance learning, and telemedicine capabilities on Pagan.

“Our office has been in contact with the CNMI Homeland Security Emergency Management office. HSEM is already addressing this matter with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey,” Kia’aina said. “The plan is to work with USGS on a cost-sharing agreement to have the volcano monitoring system in Pagan back online, which would include data uplinks and voice messaging.”

Kia’aina thanked Aldan and said that she too is interested in visiting Pagan someday. She pointed out that the Northern Islands Mayor’s Office can apply for OIA’s Technical Assistance Grant Program that would provide funding for his office.

Aldan aims to build and resettle Pagan and his interest in procuring funding from OIA would help that further development.

According to Aldan, he said that he and Kia’aina discussed the Internet connection, which was recently terminated because of high maintenance cost.

“What I found from HSEM office is that it costs $80,000 a year to maintain and keep the Internet running on Pagan Island. However, the deputy assistant secretary for HSEM mentioned that the CNMI-DHSEM is testing a more inexpensive option costing a mere $3,000 fee a month,” Aldan said.

“We are hopeful that we may get some technical assistance in this area considering that communication is imperative to the lives of the people in the Northern Islands, not to mention the potential for distance learning and telemedicine capabilities,” he added.

Currently the form of communication in the Northern Islands is through a VHF single sideband radio, which during inclement weather has poor to no reception.

Typhoon Nangka recently damaged several homes in the Northern Islands. Without Internet access and limited or no communication access, Aldan said it would be hard to contact the people in the Northern Islands.

Aldan earlier traveled up north to do assessment and found homes, communication equipment, and several of the Northern Islands Mayor Office facilities were damaged by Nangka.

Aldan is now seeking assistance in procuring home and construction materials for rebuilding several resident homes and facilities that were damaged.