The Government is happy to invest in water projects for Fijians in rural areas.

This is due to “clean water flows many benefits that keep us more productive and more resilient to environmental hardships”.

As he commissioned yet another water project, this time in Nasukamai village in Ra Province worth $125,000, the Minister for Infrastructure Jone Usamate reiterated the Government’s stance that no one should be left behind especially rural dwellers when it comes to accessing clean and safe drinking water.

Every Fijian deserves to live with the security and happiness that only clean water can provide which the Minister says is one of their key priorities.

In the last five years, Government through WAF (Water Authority of Fiji) had allocated $4.5 million towards Rural Water Projects in the province of Ra alone which has seen the implementation of 68 Rural Water Projects within the province.

Usamate says to ensure a clean and steady flow of water to the people of the community, there is a construction of a new dam, lying of 0.9km of the pipeline, and installation of standpipes.

In addition, there were also 15 new household connections taking the total number of households benefiting from this water system to 100 which will benefit 450 people.

Usamate says the Government, through WAF, has set aside a total budget of $11.3m for the 2019/2020 financial year to implement 32 water schemes in the rural areas around Fiji.

In addition to that, WAF through its Rainwater Harvesting Scheme is distributing water tanks to non-metered areas with a budgetary allocation of $3m in the new financial year.

Since the inception of the scheme, WAF has distributed more than 11,400 water tanks nationwide.