Cicia Grateful To Ministry of Fisheries

The villagers of Natokalau Vil­lage in Cicia, Lau, were grate­ful to the Ministry of Fish­eries for choosing their village to open a ice plant yesterday.

Of the five villages on Cicia, Ma­bula, Tarukua, Naceva, Lomati and Natokalau, the latter was chosen be­cause it had a regular water supply.

Tui Natokalau, Vuli Luca said the ice plant would benefit all the vil­lages on Cicia island.

“We are very happy that to­day an ice plant is open in the vil­lage. This means a lot to us because we have a place where we can store fish,” Mr Luca said.

“We have five villages in this island but our village is the only village that has abundant of fresh water. When the other villages run out of water during drought they come to our village to get water.

“Our source of water is from the spring in the mountain. We have been blessed with abundant supply of water. Ice plant is only located where there is abundant of fresh water.”

Mother of three, Kalesi Bula said she the ice plant meant that they don’t have to fish regularly.

“Now we can just buy the ice and store it in our Esky (cooler box). Be­fore we had to fish in the morning for my children’s lunch but now I can go fishing once a week and store them,” Ms Bula said.

“Now instead of going fishing eve­ryday we can do other things. I want to thank the Ministry of Fisheries for thinking of us. They may not know how much the new ice plant means to us.”

Minister for Fisheries Semi Ko­roilavesau said the collaboration approach would not have been pos­sible without the chiefs and people of Cicia’s support.

Edited by Susana Tuilau