Ok Tedi River

Last updated
Ok Tedi
Oktedi-landsat.png
Satellite image of the Ok Tedi River
New guinea ok tedi river.PNG
Location of the Ok Tedi
Location
Country Papua New Guinea, Indonesia
Region Western Province
Physical characteristics
Source 
  locationStar Mountains, Papua New Guinea
  coordinates 5°5′24″S141°13′5″E / 5.09000°S 141.21806°E / -5.09000; 141.21806
  elevation1,619 m (5,312 ft)
Mouth  
  location
Fly, Papua New Guinea
  coordinates
6°10′5″S141°7′8.5″E / 6.16806°S 141.119028°E / -6.16806; 141.119028
  elevation
22 m (72 ft)
Length207 km (129 mi)
Basin size5,360 km2 (2,070 sq mi)
Basin features
Tributaries 
  leftOk Menga, Ok Ma

The Ok Tedi is a river in New Guinea. The Ok Tedi Mine is located near the headwaters of the river, which is sourced in the Star Mountains. It is the second largest tributary of the Fly River. Nearly the entirety of the Ok Tedi runs through the North Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, but the river crosses the international boundary with Indonesia for less than one kilometre. The largest settlement of the Western Province, Tabubil is located near its banks.

Contents

Description

Known as the Ok Tedi River by the Yonggom people who live on its western bank, it was renamed the Alice River by the Italian explorer Luigi d'Albertis. [1] Ok is the word for water or river in the Ok languages family. It is a tributary of the Fly River. Tributaries of the Ok Tedi include the Birim.

The Kiunga-Tabubil Highway runs parallel with the river for the majority of its course, until just south of Ningerum where the highway veers southeast towards Kiunga, a port town on the Fly River.

The Ok Tedi is extremely fast-moving and has a massive capacity. It is situated on a sand bank, which allows for the river to change course quickly without warning. The sand conditions underneath the river and the extremely high rainfall of the catchment area make it one of the fastest moving rivers in the world. The roar from the river can be heard for many kilometres through the dense jungle of the district.

The pristine river was devastated by the Ok Tedi environmental disaster, when the enormous open-pit copper/gold Ok Tedi mine discharged massive amounts if mining waste directly into the river. Until its seizure by the Government of Papua New Guinea, the mine was owned by BHP.

Notes

  1. Peter D. Dwyer, Monica Minnegal and Chris Warrillow The forgotten expedition - 1885: The Strickland River, Papua New GuineaJournal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 101(1):7-24 · June 2015 


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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ok Tedi environmental disaster</span> Event in Papua New Guinea

The Ok Tedi environmental disaster caused severe harm to the environment along 1,000 km (620 mi) of the Ok Tedi River and the Fly River in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea from 1984 to 2013, with the damage still ongoing. The lives of 50,000 people have been disrupted by the disaster. One of the worst environmental disasters caused by humans, it is a consequence of the discharge of about two billion tons of untreated mining waste into the Ok Tedi from the Ok Tedi Mine, an open pit mine situated in the province.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ningerum</span> Place in Western Province, Papua New Guinea

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The Birim River or Ok Birim in the western province of New Guinea is a tributary of the Ok Tedi River, which is in turn a tributary of the north Fly River. The Birim river joins the Ok Tedi river from the west between Ningerum and Bige. The Birim river area is inhabited by the Yonggom tribe. They practise tropical forest Swidden agriculture. Comprising about 3,000 people, the tribe speaks the Ninggerum language of the Ok group.

Roy Biyama was a Papua New Guinean politician. He was a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea from 2002 until his death, representing the electorate of Middle Fly Open. He was a member of four parties: the Papua New Guinea Revival Party, the People's Action Party, the United Resources Party and the People's National Congress. He served as Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (2003-2004), Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations (2004-2006) and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister (2006-2007) in the Somare government. He had also been Governor of Western Province since February 2017.