Commissioner Western Manasa Tagicakibau yesterday opened the village office for the village of Natalau in Sabeto, Nadi.

The Natalau Community Emergency Centre will also be used as an evacuation centre and a dispensary during natural disasters for the village.

During the official opening of the office, the Commissioner Western, Manasa Tagicakibau said this was the first village in the 14 provinces in the country to have their very own office in the village.

He said the villagers would also no longer need to go the city in order to communicate with the Commissioner Western’s office but they could do so through the services provided in the office.

The office will be managed by the village headman.

“The $5500 worth project was the first of a kind in any village in the country,” Mr Tagicakiba said.

“The newly built office will be the village dispensary as well during the times of natural disasters.”

Village head man Nikola Vetawa said they were happy that the Government and other agencies decided to assist them as they had been planning to set it up for a long time.

“We had sat as a village committee last year and decided we needed this and it took us about six to seven months to build this when the Government acted upon our only request to them,” Mr Vetawa said.

He said that this had also created more space for the evacuees in times of disasters as the office was extended from the village community hall.

The office was built through the assistance of United Nations Development Programme, AusAid, Live and Learn and the Ministry of Rural and Maritime development.