As many as 60 people living in a settlement in the Nausori Highlands claim they have been drinking from the Mosi River, a waterway contaminated by gravel extractors for a number of years now.
Resident Jese Raboutiro voiced their concerns to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama after he commissioned the Mosi Dam III in Nadi on Wednesday.
He claimed water pipes brought to the area by Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) employees three years ago had been left there idle and nothing had been done since then.
The Nausori Highlands farmer said it was a sad reality that they drank water from the same source used for gravel extraction.
Mr Raboutiro said they were forced to cart water from the river very early in the morning when it was clean. He pleaded with the prime minister to look into their plight as most residents had young school children who relied on the river for their daily living.
A WAF representative present at the forum said they would follow up on the issue.
