Enggros Village, The First Kampong with Wi-Fi in Papua

During the past three years of President Joko Widodo’s cabinet, the government has proven that one of their main focus, which is equal development in Indonesia, has been realized. Thus, there have been lots of development in eastern Indonesia, especially Papua. The developments include infrastructures, welfare, educations, health, economy, fishery and maritime. One of the villages that have received the benefit is Enggros Village.

Enggros Village

Located near West Papua’s capital city of Jayapura in Youtefa bay, Enggros village is indeed a unique village. The people build their home above the sea. To get to this village, people from outside of Enggros village can take speed boat from Hamadi dock or Youtefa market dock for about 20 minutes with a fee of around 10.000 rupiah.

The village has 33.37 hectares area and 135 families inhabiting the area. Because they live on the sea, they build woods bridges to connect one house to another. Their livelihood are mainly fishermen.

Free Wi-Fi

The Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration has provided free internet access and wi-fi after Enggros village has won third place in a 2016 national village competition. Using a free 24 hours free wi-fi the people of Enggros village will be able to access information from around the world.

There are wi-fi spots where people can gather to access internet. One of them is a wooden house with a cone roof called INFRAU, which means public place. The others are the area close to the office of the village head, and the wooden bridges where people can sit and surf the net with their gadgets or laptops.

Potential benefits

The free internet access has given many advantages for the people in Enggros village. The men who make their living as fishermen, can search for fishery knowledge to improve their skills. Students can use the internet to add their knowledge and help their study. While the ladies use the internet to find the knowledge that can help them managing household and women empowerment such as new recipes, and new patterns for Noken.

Besides those benefits, there are two other potentials that can be harnessed for the village progress. They can promote Enggros’s natural resources and tourism through the official website of Enggros village. Hopefully, more economic benefits and progress can be reaped in the future.

source: PapuaNews.org