PEOPLE of East Kwara’ae region of Malaita are voicing their grave concerns over the lack to secure a radio frequency to hear weather updates given the current weather situation.
Reports reaching the Solomon Star from an East Kwara’ae man Alphonse Kelly on Monday said, they could not find the radio frequencies of both AM and FM due to the current status of the weather.
This has forced them into a nerve-racking situation, as they were no longer able to hear weather updates through their radios at the rural zones.
“Our concern here is, how we can get timely updates of the current weather situation that the country is going through.
“We have been trying to get hold on to the SIBC and FM channels, but we just could not access them.
“Before that, we have accessed the frequencies back here in the village. This is not the case for the past few days,” Mr Kelly, who called in from the highlands of east Kwara’ae said.
When asked about the SIBC shortwave, he said they have not accessed the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Cooperation (SIBC) 1035 kilohertz medium wave two weeks ago.
Mr Kelly said, the people in the village prefer receiving information through SIBC, as they did not normally understands weather terms such as ‘low depression’, and others.
“We have contacted our relatives in Honiara for weather updates, but we could not seem to understand what they are saying, through the use of the meteorological conditions terms.
“Most people in the village prefer the use of SIBC to inform audience, as the best medium to pass on messages,” he added.
This paper understands that the medium wave that can be accessed by the Central Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal, Central, and Malaita Province) is currently down.
Meanwhile, the chief executive officer of SIBC, Ashley Wickham has explained earlier that a plan was devised so that SIBC would not be allowed to collapse for lack of funds but be strategically re-organised so that its essential service role of broadcasting National Disaster and Emergency warnings and public information was not disrupted
The termination of the Medium Wave comes under Action 1 of the devised plan.
However, people throughout the country would still be able to hear SIBC’s dual-frequency Short Wave transmitter.
“The MW transmitter was switched off shortly after 15th December. Power for the FM 96.3 transmitter which should serve the Florida group as well as areas in and around Honiara was raised to 800watts,” the Action 1 plan reads.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA
