It’s no secret that often women and young people mostly have to find and gather water for use at home.

This is true for most of the rural remote areas where water is scarce.

But the women and young people of Waisa, Natokalau and Nasaisaivua in the district of Kubulau in Bua can now breathe a sigh of relief as they are getting clean and safe water inside their homes.

Each of the three villages now have a borehole which supplies water 24/7 to their homes to use for drinking, washing and bathing.

In commissioning the boreholes yesterday, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says now women in the villages will not have to worry about fetching water every day.

“Now, they can focus on other activities, they can become more productive and they can spend more time with their families and community members — knowing they don’t have to work as hard to find a reliable source of clean water. "

The Mineral Resources Department installed the boreholes and piping works for the water to be supplied to the villages.

According to Lands and Mineral Resources Minister Faiyaz Koya, each of the systems costs them roughly $36,000.

“It is roughly about $100,000. We are looking at about 30 plus thousand dollars each. The major cost of it is the solar panelling and the reticulation sometimes takes a bit more because maybe the borehole is up on the mountain. For one of the villages, the borehole is up on a hill about a kilometre from the village. So, reticulation may cause a little bit extra.”

Koya adds, in order for villages to get boreholes, the Mineral Resources Department first had to identify villages that needed water and check for any available water sources.