A 38-year-old woman of Sawanikula Village in Muaira, Naitasiri, claims three of her six children have been hospitalised on different occasions because of the heavily contaminated river they source water from.
She was fetching water from the Wainiogai River when a team from this newspaper caught up with her and a few other women.
“For the last four months since the lockdown happened, the water dam was not able to supply water to our houses,” she said.
“I have six children and the youngest is just three. We drink, bath, wash clothes and fetch cooking water from this river, which is contaminated because of the farmhouses and farms located up the river, where pesticides are used,” she claimed.
“Animals use it and there are pig pens by the river. My three children once had severe diarrhoea and vomiting. When we got to the hospital, I was told they suffered from a waterborne disease. It was so severe they had to transfer them from Vunidawa Hospital to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.”
She said women in their 50s and 60s carried heavy buckets of water from the river to their homes. Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) spokesman Peni Shute was on leave when questions were sent to him via electronic mail on December 6.
The same set of questions were sent to the WAF communications team on December 6 and remains unanswered.
Permanent secretary for Infrastructure Ministry, Taitusi Vakadravuyaca has also not responded to questions on the concerns raised by the villagers. Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong said most communities in Naitasiri have an untreated water supply.
“Advice is given throughout the year to boil drinking water,” he said.
“Sawanikula water project is in WAF’s listing for this fiscal year as confirmed by WAF in the bose tikina Muaira.”
