ONE-HUNDRED and sixty-four homes were completely destroyed during the 2009 floods. None of the houses were located in the sugar belt areas. An IUCN report stated that in cases where flood waters entered homes of sugarcane farmers, flood damage was significant.
Losses included possessions, household repairs, human health and clean up costs and amounted to $2.5m.
The report stated that the loss of farmers' household possessions was relatively low compared to the urban dwellers because only a few homes were located in flood prone areas. "The majority of farmers have their home sites on relatively higher grounds even in if their farms are not. Other effects such as loss in off-farm income and health costs were also small," it said.
Only a small proportion of cane farmers had flood waters enter their homes. Approximately a third of the growers reported water entering their homes and only about half of these people evacuated. The majority went to a neighbour's house and only 14 per cent evacuated to evacuation centres.
Ninety-one surveyed growers reported damage to their homes and possessions. Thirty-five reported some damage to their homes, of which 17 farms had over $1000 in damage to their homes. "These families lost most, if not all their household possessions from foods, cooking utensils, clothing, beds and other furniture. There were also many flow-on effects of the flood, such as loss of wages because of inability to travel to work or work places were closed. Approximately 42 per cent of the 380 households surveyed reported family members suffering from water and vector-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, dengue fever and leptospirosis," said the report.
The low-lying flood plains of the Ba River suffered the highest loss, accounting for 61 per cent of the losses, followed by farm households in the flood plains around the Nadi River and low-lying coastal areas in the Lautoka Mill area.