Moses Hicks of Fiji Water shows Lisa Tavisoro and her family members how to filter water at Sasa Village in Ba.



WATER woes that have plagued two rural communities in Ba are now a thing of the past.

Over the weekend, the Fiji Water Foundation and United States-based Give Clean Water Inc installed water filters at the low-lying villages of Sasa and Natunuku.

Following the January floods, these two communities were without regular access to clean water for many weeks. Irregular carted drinking water left many families thirsty and reliant upon contaminated water sources which resulted in illness.

Sasa Village nurse said "this will be an immense help to us".

"We often have water cuts and we have to walk to get water from the Indian family down the road. During the floods we only had the river. Now we can use this filter to drink river water or rain water. I will encourage everyone to use this," she said.

Since 2008, Give Clean Water has installed more than 1000 household water filters in communities around Nadi and Ba. In 10 years, the team aims to install a filter in every home in Fiji.

The filter, made by Sawyer Products, is known as the Point One Filter. It removes 99.999 per cent of all bacteria, protozoa, and cysts like e.coli, cholera and typhoid, preventing many water-bourne diseases which are common during times of flood and water shortage. The filters come with one million gallon guarantee. Meanwhile, the Fiji Water Foundation has donated US$30,000 (more than FJ$60,000) toward the installation of 300 water filters in as many homes in the Ba area.

FIJI Times, Monday, October 26, 2009