Kia Island Villagers Plea Heard, WAF Makes Visit

The urgent pleas of Daku and Ligau Villagers on Kia Island in the Northern Division for intervention from relevant authorities to address their water crisis has been heard.

Daku Village Community Development leader and member of the water committee, Joana Finau said the two-day visit by the WAF team was focused on servicing and cleaning the desalination plant in Ligau.

“They first visited Ligau to service the plant and advised villagers in Daku that they were looking at setting up a reliable water source in our village in the coming weeks,” she said.

Roko Tui Macuata Epeli Tabuarua confirmed this saying staff from the Water Authority of Fiji (WAF), Mineral Resources Department and the District Office of Macuata visited the island.

Mr Tabuarua said the water crisis in the two villages remains on the North emergency checklist.

He said there was a water purifying machine in Ligau to convert sea water to drinking water and they were looking at setting up a reliable water source for Daku Village.

Water Committee member

Ms Finau said after the desalination plant was cleaned, villagers in Ligau were able to access water and carry out their basic household chores.

“For us at Daku, this is also good news because we could now travel to the village to access this water for our daily activities such as bathing, laundry, washing utensils,” she said.

She reiterated that both villages had been assured by the WAF team that they would continue to make progress on developing a reliable water source for the Islanders.

Donations

The 45-year-old further said that monetary donations were made by former Kia residents living in Sydney, Australia to help them temporarily cater for drinking water for both villages.

She said the money was used to purchase 33 cartons of 1.5 litres of Aqua Safe bottled water from Shop and save supermarket in Labasa.

Edited by Losirene Lacanivalu

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