Three villages in Deuba are seeking the Government’s assistance in building a retaining wall and footpath in their villages.

They are: Nasavu Village, Sadro Village and Sauniveiuto Village.

Sauniveiuto villagers are already witnessing the effects of changes in weather patterns as seawater sips into the soil destroying all crops in its path.

The same goes for Nasavu and Sadro as they are just a walking distance apart.

Sauniveiuto village headman and development committee chair Sevanaia Taboukovei says they do not allow their crops to mature more than 6 months before it is uprooted.

He says this is to avoid crops from getting bad.

“Most villagers rely on the land for their cash income and we have experienced our plantation is not as good as it used to be,” Mr Taboukovei said.

“Now we can just let dalo grow for 6 months before it gets bad, unlike before it used to grow to 7 to 8 months.

“They count before it reaches 6 months they uproot their crops because the water sips into the soil.”

Mr Taboukovei said nowadays they experience big tides when there is a full moon, which was not the case then.

He said village elders used to tell them stories of how the village never used to get flooded before.

“Now in our generation we have witnessed the flooding of the village and some houses.

“We are concerned that it will cause accidents amongst children especially when they go to school, or move around, we are thinking to construct a footpath and also a retaining wall since the soil is eroding,” he said.

“We are convinced that one day the Navua area will be like New Orleans where there was a flood and it took quite a while for the flood waters to recede, here it might take about 2 weeks for the water to go down.”

“Every year during the district meetings we always take up our grievances regarding the retention wall which is evidence that the water level is rising, if we have to keep digging the streams all the time it will not rectify the flooding problem.”

In the mean time they have started collecting big rocks and piling them against the stream to stop soil erosion.

There are about 150 households scattered amongst the three villages which lie side by side. Edited by Mohammed Ali

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