Rural, Maritime Communities Frequently Request Roads, Seawalls, Evacuation Centres

Government has been frequented with requests for construction of seawalls, farm roads and evacuation centres from Fijians living in rural and maritime communities.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama mentioned these during a talanoa session after he officiated at the opening of the refurbished Nasau Health Centre in Ra, on Tuesday.

“Many people have been asking for farm roads and the Ministry of Agriculture is working towards discovering where farm roads can be made. There is money for bull- dozers,” he said.

He also said there were requests for seawall for those who live near the waters.

He asked villagers in Ra to wait for a while as the ministry tries to attend to every farm road request.

Mr Bainimarama said there have also been requests for network reception from unreached communities. This was after a number of requests on the same item was brought up in the talanoa session in Ra.

In response, he said Government does not have the right to tell Vodafone when and where they could provide its services.

He also said the Government could only wait on network providers to set up its towers in rural and maritime places before they could work together to enhance accessibility for people.

Additionally, Mr Bainmarama said the Government was mapping rural development projects on a Geographic Information System platform.

“This technology will enable us to have a bird’s eye view of every development taking place across the country and enhance our planning capability to determine future rural development needs and priorities,” he said.

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