Ratepayers Call For More Security At the Vunato Dump Site

Smoke from the Vunato Dump site fire is filling the surrounding settlements and residential areas, even drifting into Lautoka city. This is what Lautoka Residents and Ratepayers Association president Narayan Reddy said.

“As of that morning (August 27), we could see that the smoke has reached the town, so that’s something that we have to be careful about because that smoke will affect the livelihood of many people, especially the villagers who stay near the dump, particularly the older and younger generation,” he said.

Mr Reddy claimed several requests made to the local council only fell on deaf ears. He said the fires seemed to occur around September to December each year.

“I think this is the second time the dump has caught fire; the last time it was a small fire, but the fire at the dump has been an ongoing problem. For the past five to 10 years, we have been having frequent dump fires every year and we had some bad dump fires,” he said.

“I think the last time we agreed that there would be more fire hydrants installed at the dump and they would try and do a watchtower and to some extent relocate the dump; that’s what the council said three years ago.”

Lautoka City Council chief executive officer Mohammed Anees Khan said the corner of the Vunato disposal site was believed to have been set on fire at 2pm last Friday.

“Because of the heat and strong winds, we were not able to put out the fire, but we managed to isolate it so it’s not spreading, so we used a water pump, bulldozer and an excavator,” he said.

Mr Khan said the National Fire Authority (NFA) was guiding the Lautoka City Council on technicalities in terms of how to put out the fire, however NFA officers did not enter the dump site to put out the fire because it had spread over a large area.

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