After the country’s two recent floods, the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) had to spend an additional $100 million to repair the roads.

Speaking at the World Meteorological Day celebration at the Ba Civic Centre yesterday, the Minister for Infra­structure and Meteorological Services, Jone Usamate said the monies had to be diverted from existing projects.

Mr Usamate said the issue of flooding had always been a concern for the country for many years.

“We know that we are a nation that is very vulnerable to natural disasters such as tropi­cal cyclones and espe­cially floods,” he said.

“Floods have been the bane of this country over the past few years, and I have also known that every time that we have rain, as the min­ister responsible for roads in this country, I keep thinking about the crossings that would go away, the roads that get damaged.

“Already this year just from two floods, it has cost FRA a hundred million dollars. That is a hundred mil­lion dollars that we have to take out from existing projects to try to get the roads fixed and that is a huge challenge.”

He said one of the compelling priorities at the Fiji Me­teorological Service was to make sure that the lives and livelihoods from weather, climate and weather-related dis­asters were protected.

“The celebration this year is very important because it is talking about early warning, early action. Fiji Met can help us in giving the early warning and the early action has to be something that everybody does,” Mr Usamate added.