CARTING water from the well for daily use will now be a thing of the past for more than 200 villagers of Nasisili in Yasawa.
Despite warnings from the Health Ministry for villagers to avoid carting water from the wells, the villagers continued to do so because this has been their main water source for the past eight years.
Last week, Turtle Island Resort came to their rescue and funded and installed a $20,000 solar water pump that supplies water to the village.
The villagers could not contain their emotions and shed tears of joy as Turtle Island Resort owner Richard Evanson Jr and his staff members led by Ratu Bill Mualele officially opened the new water project.
Mr Evanson Jr said he could not sit back and watch his neighbours suffer from the ongoing water woes.
“Turtle Island has a history of supporting our communities and recently, with the drought, we heard that water was catered out to these communities and that kind of inspired us,” he said.
“We thought of a better solution to best help the villagers so we went out there and used some of the resources we had on Turtle Island to connect water supplies and do it efficiently to solve the water problem.”
Village headman Inoke Ratubuli said they had been crying for this assistance for many years and thanked the good Samaritan for answering their prayers.
He claimed he had raised the issue during various tikina council meetings but nothing happened. “We are happy and emotional with this huge assistance,” said Mr Ratubuli. |
