Minister for Public Works, Ro Filipe Tuisawau, says Fiji’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Plan has outlined a clear roadmap to improve rural water and sanitation services.

Speaking at the master plan finalisation workshop this morning, Ro Filipe emphasised the plan aligns with Fiji’s key national policies, including the National Development Plan 2025–2029 and the Water Strategy 2050.

He adds that the plan supports the Rural Water and Sanitation Policy, ensuring water projects are coordinated, efficient, and sustainable.

Ro Filipe explains that the plan will be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 (2025–2030) aims to provide safe and reliable water systems, while Phase 2 (2031–2050) will focus on improving services through better planning and innovation.

He says the plan shifts focus from just building projects to maintaining them, monitoring performance, and building climate resilience. He adds that achieving the plan’s goals will require stronger management and teamwork between the Department of Water, Sewage, the new Rural Water Unit, and the Water Authority of Fiji.

“Enhancing data quality and establishing digital systems to monitor performance and inform decision making, securing adequate sustainable financing and mechanisms to support both infrastructure development and service delivery. Again, this is important in terms of ensuring that this is within government’s physical strategy, ensuring that we don’t really take the country into more debt.”

He further adds that the proposed Climate Resilience Water and Sanitation Fund is a key step to ensure rural water systems can handle climate change, extreme weather, and natural disasters.

He says success will depend on strong partnerships with government, communities, the private sector, NGOs, and other stakeholders, and the ministry looks forward to implementing the plan.

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