THE crew on board the vessel Princess Moana spent more than 12 hours carting 240,000 litres of water to government stations on Nacula earlier this week.
Led by Captain Siga Tuiwai, they braved the heat to drag more than 500 metres of hose to each water tank at the Nacula Police Post, Ratu Meli Memorial Primary School, Yasawa North Secondary School and the Nacula Health Centre.
Mr Tuiwai said carting water to the island group came with its challenges.
“We came on Monday afternoon and had to wait for the tide to come up before the ship could move closer to shore,” he said.
“That takes more than half the day and then when we do get closer, we have to drag the hose to each of the tanks until they’re all filled.
“In Nacula, we started around 3pm on Monday and finished around 4am on Tuesday.”
He said the crew had been travelling to all schools in northern Yasawa.
“We’ve been to Yasawa-i-Rara and Naviti before we came to Nacula. Our main focus has been the schools and the government stations. Once we complete that then we will move to the villages.
“The way I see it, our work will continue on until December.”
Capt Tuiwai said the unpredictable weather also played a part in the delay of their work. “The sea gets really rough sometimes. We have to make sure that it calms down before we can do our work,” he said.
On Tuesday, the crew dragged more than 500 metres of hose to cart more than 106,000 litres of water to two schools and a police post on Nacula Island.
About 80,000 litres was then transported to the Nacula Health Centre.
Nacula district spokesman Saimone Naivalu said the seven villages within the district were urged to use water sparingly until water arrived.
“We see that their work is not easy and we understand that it will take some time for water to reach each village,” he said.
“Until then I have asked all of our seven turaganikoro to urge their villagers to manage the water that they have until the water arrives.”
