inumu 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. Location The dam is located in Central Province, in a natural basin surrounded by mountains south of Sogeri. The dammed area receives inputs from the Laloki River and a number of its tributaries, which has become Lake Sirinumu. Some of the newly formed islands within the lake remain inhabited. It takes about an hour by bus to get to Port Moresby from the main port in the lake. Part of the soil on which the dam is built is laterite. History The land flooded by the dam was inhabited by a number of clans, per later claims there were six: Wanowari, Orari, Monitori, Magibiri, Tuiya, and Bemuri. Another claim is that the Wakai people previously lived in four villages, two larger ones called Yoadabu and Gebodabu, and the sm