Ovalau residents reject ‘band-aid’ road repairs

Ovalau residents have called for an end to what they describe as years of “band-aid solutions” to the island’s deteriorating road network, saying temporary repairs have failed to address long-standing infrastructure problems.

Speaking during the Fijian Media Association Town Hall meeting in Levuka last night, resident Anthony Sahai said many of the concerns he had raised during a similar town hall with the previous FijiFirst Government in September 2020 remained unresolved.

“This is the very same town hall which I stood up and posed the various questions and raised a few issues to the previous FijiFirst Government team that toured Levuka in September 2020," Mr Sahai said.

“From then till today, those issues which I had raised still lingers. “Even when the coalition government came into power in 2022, those similar issues still persist.”

Mr Sahai said the condition of Ovalau’s roads remained poor despite repeated maintenance works.

“As for the roads, the roads are in a pathetic condition. “Whenever a convoy of heavy road work machinery comes across to Ovalau, they dig, they grade, they tarseal, they fill up the potholes and leave upon completion back to the mainland," he said.

“The next heavy downpour comes, it washes off the tar seal, potholes reappear again and the cycle continues. We need to wait for another six, seven months for the next convoy of machinery to come across. And provide the band-aid solutions.

“We had enough of the Band-Aid solutions. We need permanent fixes. We need permanent fixes to last a lifetime.”

Responding, Minister for Public Works, Transport and Meteorological Services Ro Filipe Tuisawau acknowledged that infrastructure challenges could not be resolved overnight and outlined plans to strengthen road maintenance on the island.

“When I came into Levuka town today I didn’t come across or run into a pothole," he told the forum.

“FRA had done some road improvements and the amount that was spent here.

“In terms of the quality, that is one of the ongoing issue we faced coming into government.

“We are bringing PWD back and in this financial year we will be upgrading the depot here plus the machinery that will be acquired for the regular maintenance of roads.

“One of the challenges is that contractors were not on the island, we will bring that back.

He said rebuilding infrastructure systems would take time, particularly after the closure of the former Public Works Department.

“For infrastructure you cannot solve anything in 4 years, it takes time.

“When PWD was disbanded, we lost a lot of skilled personnel, this is something we are trying to build up.

“For quality, there used to be a quality testing unit within PWD, that was disbanded when the PWD was shut down.

“What I can assure is that we are building a depot here and they will be based here with the machinery to fix roads as they are based here."