Ground water assessment and development for small islands and large islanders were separately allocated to cater for both island groups.
Lands Minister Jone Usamate said this while responding to a question raised by Opposition MP Anare Jale.
Mr Jale asked why the ground water assessment and development for small islands and large islands were given separate allocations under the 2022-2023 National Budget.
Mr Usamate said it was done to make sure that funds were exhausted on the large islands and the small islands forgotten about.
Mr Jale also asked how large and small islands were differentiated. Mr Usamate said Viti Levu and Vanua Levu were basically the large islands and all the others were small islands.
He said this year ground water investigations would take place largely on Kadavu, and various places around the country similar to Lakeba in the Lau group.
Mr Jale said he appreciated that the smaller islands were given their own allocation, and that when lumping the allocation together the smaller islands seemed to be forgotten.