23/05/09 - Water for life in the valley
Anjali Devi danced like nobody cared last Saturday.
She stood up and joined a group of women, clad in beautiful multi-coloured sari, to dance, clap and hoot the Sigatoka Valley way, as favourite Indian folk songs echoed around the valley from a CD player.
Friends and children from around the neighbourhood joined in the singing and clapping as scores of families enjoyed a celebration that had not taken place for years in this part of the country.
After years of survival on rain water and wells for cooking and drinking and having their laundry and dishes done at a nearby creek, Naikorokoro Settlement now, for the first time, has access to fresh, clean and safe drinking water.
A $30,000 project funded by the Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation was commissioned last Saturday by chief guest, Molly Powers, Manager for FIJI Water Foundation.
The project included major earthworks on digging a borehole at least 40 to 50 metres down and extracting water into a new 10,000 litre tank in the settlement. The water is then pumped into pipes to every individual home in Naikorokoro.
As project managers worked their way through, they were at times aided by some men from the settlement. It became a community project where everyone involved themselves after years of hardship and back-breaking tasks to cart water from a well-used creek and river.
Devi, a mother of two, had joined about 80 residents of Naikorokoro Settlement, to celebrate the arrival into this small community of a regular supply of clean, fresh and safe water.
“The smile on their faces said it all,” said Joel Sahai, a director of Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation, a trust established to assist rural communities with the provision of sustainable, clean and safe drinking water.
“Here is what we did on last Saturday,” said Aslam Khan, Managing Director and CEO of Vodafone Fiji Limited, a company that has played an important role in making life easy for many people in Fiji. He had emailed pictures of the celebration.
“The pictures are of the kids of Naikorokoro, enjoying the water flowing from the taps and ladies dancing,” he said. “They had a ball!”
Khan had done similar things before in various districts in Fiji and shared that his company had enjoyed planning and ensuring that water projects, in particular, reached under-priviledged communities that have borne hardships in this area.
What became special about Naikorokoro was that the community became the first Indo-Fijian to receive such help from the Foundation. It also became the 40th project for the partnership programme.
“Naikorokoro is an Indo-Fijian settlement with twenty families and a population of around ninety people, mainly farmhands with a small number working in Sigatoka town,” Mr Sahai said.
“While the men farm, the women mostly look after the families and do the house chores,” he said.
“Like all rural communities we know, they have a great partnership going on save for difficult things like fresh water supplies.
“And we are all grateful that the people of Naikorokoro will now enjoy life better and time spent on this aspect of their lives will now be usefully utilised for some other things.”
Devi is one such woman who will become a better person!
Along with the women, men and children from the settlement, located around five to six kilometres from Sigatoka Town, Devi had endured lugging piles of dirty laundry, water jars and containers over 400 kilometres to the river for the last 20 years.
After washing and bathing at the Naikorokoro bend of the 120km long Sigatoka River or at the nearest creek, Devi and the other housewives would return home to hang the clothes and wash the dirty dishes and cutlery with water carried over.
The loads, varying in sizes, were either carried on their heads or on sledges pulled by pairs of bullocks the men use for ploughing the land.
Devi and the women made their recollections at the celebrations in Naikorokoro last Saturday.
“The creek was also used by the residents for bathing and in the rainy season the water was muddy while during a period of drought water would be scarce,” she added.
“The commissioning of this new facility is too good to believe, a real gift and we, the women in particular, are delighted as we now have water in our kitchens, showers and toilets,” Devi said.
The Foundation receives annual funding from four local donors, which include FIJI Water Foundation, Golden Manufacturers, Westpac Banking Corporation and Vodafone ATH Fiji Foundation.
Offshore funding is provided by Rotary International Foundation.
Since the project started in August 2007, it has completed almost 40 projects in several rural communities and villages around the country. The Foundation provided a new lease of life for scores of children in Rakiraki District School in the drier part of Western Viti Levu when they also commissioned a new water facility that would store fresh and clean water that will be regular for the kids.
It also provided funding for a major water works project for the children of Ratu Filimoni Loco Memorial School in Lodoni, Tailevu for regular supplies of fresh water for students and teachers.
Powers has provided the link between the FIJI Water Foundation and its partners in this popular programme and has urged other businesses in Fiji to join hands in improving the quality of life for local people.
FIJI Water had joined the Foundation to donate money to development projects in priority areas such as health, education and provision of water and infrastructure projects in Fiji.
FIJI Water Foundation had helped in water projects for Rotary Pacific Water for Life Trust, Savusavu Community Foundation for eye-care and public sanitation projects and funding for construction of a mortuary for the Nanukuloa Health Centre in Ra.
Not very many donors give funds for sanitation and water projects and the partnership between the four organisations have helped smaller rural communities the best.
“All projects related to improvement of daily life are important,” David Roth, Managing Director at FIJI Water had said. “Most of the projects we are involved in may not seem too attractive for many people but we are helping with the projects.”
They have helped with critical areas of water and sanitation in local schools and rural communities because they were the ones that have experienced hardships in these areas for a long time.
Roth said these communities “fell through the cracks of the (government) system”.
The Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation was established in August 2007 to assist rural communities with the provision of sustainable, clean and safe drinking water.
It is registered as a limited liability company and administered by a Board of Directors with a manager and a staff of two.
Various projects have cost it at least $625,000, making life easy for over 15,500 people. There are around 90 more pending projects on the islands of Viti Levu, Yasawas, Kadavu, Vanua Levu and other islands.
Critical partnerships between the Foundation and villages have been formed, enabling everyone to contribute in one way or another. The people assist in the construction and installation works with labour input and committing themselves to good governance of the new system when they are installed and running for the communities.
Applications for assistance are assessed by a Technical Advisory Committee comprising electrical and mechanical engineers, hydro-geologists, marine biologists and representatives from Government’s Water Supplies and Mineral Resources departments, who all assist the Foundation in areas where their professional expertise are required and also supervise construction and installation works which are carried out by contractors.
The nature and size of these projects range from the provision of water tanks and piping or for the larger type, digging of boreholes, electrical pumping into storage tanks and reticulation into individual homes.
There is also a Water Committee consisting of men and women from the village which meets regularly for the duration of the project and manages the facility after its commissioning.
The Foundation also believes that education is a very essential aspect of any successful project such as these and has engaged the services of Partners in Community Development Fiji (PCDF) which conducts training and awareness workshops on water management, sanitation and best practice methods.
The Foundation receives annual funding from four local donors who include the Fiji Water Foundation, Golden Manufacturers, Westpac Banking Corporation and the Vodafone ATH Fiji Foundation while offshore funding is provided by the Rotary International Foundation.
FIJI SUN, 23 May 2009
She stood up and joined a group of women, clad in beautiful multi-coloured sari, to dance, clap and hoot the Sigatoka Valley way, as favourite Indian folk songs echoed around the valley from a CD player.
Friends and children from around the neighbourhood joined in the singing and clapping as scores of families enjoyed a celebration that had not taken place for years in this part of the country.
After years of survival on rain water and wells for cooking and drinking and having their laundry and dishes done at a nearby creek, Naikorokoro Settlement now, for the first time, has access to fresh, clean and safe drinking water.
A $30,000 project funded by the Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation was commissioned last Saturday by chief guest, Molly Powers, Manager for FIJI Water Foundation.
The project included major earthworks on digging a borehole at least 40 to 50 metres down and extracting water into a new 10,000 litre tank in the settlement. The water is then pumped into pipes to every individual home in Naikorokoro.
As project managers worked their way through, they were at times aided by some men from the settlement. It became a community project where everyone involved themselves after years of hardship and back-breaking tasks to cart water from a well-used creek and river.
Devi, a mother of two, had joined about 80 residents of Naikorokoro Settlement, to celebrate the arrival into this small community of a regular supply of clean, fresh and safe water.
“The smile on their faces said it all,” said Joel Sahai, a director of Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation, a trust established to assist rural communities with the provision of sustainable, clean and safe drinking water.
“Here is what we did on last Saturday,” said Aslam Khan, Managing Director and CEO of Vodafone Fiji Limited, a company that has played an important role in making life easy for many people in Fiji. He had emailed pictures of the celebration.
“The pictures are of the kids of Naikorokoro, enjoying the water flowing from the taps and ladies dancing,” he said. “They had a ball!”
Khan had done similar things before in various districts in Fiji and shared that his company had enjoyed planning and ensuring that water projects, in particular, reached under-priviledged communities that have borne hardships in this area.
What became special about Naikorokoro was that the community became the first Indo-Fijian to receive such help from the Foundation. It also became the 40th project for the partnership programme.
“Naikorokoro is an Indo-Fijian settlement with twenty families and a population of around ninety people, mainly farmhands with a small number working in Sigatoka town,” Mr Sahai said.
“While the men farm, the women mostly look after the families and do the house chores,” he said.
“Like all rural communities we know, they have a great partnership going on save for difficult things like fresh water supplies.
“And we are all grateful that the people of Naikorokoro will now enjoy life better and time spent on this aspect of their lives will now be usefully utilised for some other things.”
Devi is one such woman who will become a better person!
Along with the women, men and children from the settlement, located around five to six kilometres from Sigatoka Town, Devi had endured lugging piles of dirty laundry, water jars and containers over 400 kilometres to the river for the last 20 years.
After washing and bathing at the Naikorokoro bend of the 120km long Sigatoka River or at the nearest creek, Devi and the other housewives would return home to hang the clothes and wash the dirty dishes and cutlery with water carried over.
The loads, varying in sizes, were either carried on their heads or on sledges pulled by pairs of bullocks the men use for ploughing the land.
Devi and the women made their recollections at the celebrations in Naikorokoro last Saturday.
“The creek was also used by the residents for bathing and in the rainy season the water was muddy while during a period of drought water would be scarce,” she added.
“The commissioning of this new facility is too good to believe, a real gift and we, the women in particular, are delighted as we now have water in our kitchens, showers and toilets,” Devi said.
The Foundation receives annual funding from four local donors, which include FIJI Water Foundation, Golden Manufacturers, Westpac Banking Corporation and Vodafone ATH Fiji Foundation.
Offshore funding is provided by Rotary International Foundation.
Since the project started in August 2007, it has completed almost 40 projects in several rural communities and villages around the country. The Foundation provided a new lease of life for scores of children in Rakiraki District School in the drier part of Western Viti Levu when they also commissioned a new water facility that would store fresh and clean water that will be regular for the kids.
It also provided funding for a major water works project for the children of Ratu Filimoni Loco Memorial School in Lodoni, Tailevu for regular supplies of fresh water for students and teachers.
Powers has provided the link between the FIJI Water Foundation and its partners in this popular programme and has urged other businesses in Fiji to join hands in improving the quality of life for local people.
FIJI Water had joined the Foundation to donate money to development projects in priority areas such as health, education and provision of water and infrastructure projects in Fiji.
FIJI Water Foundation had helped in water projects for Rotary Pacific Water for Life Trust, Savusavu Community Foundation for eye-care and public sanitation projects and funding for construction of a mortuary for the Nanukuloa Health Centre in Ra.
Not very many donors give funds for sanitation and water projects and the partnership between the four organisations have helped smaller rural communities the best.
“All projects related to improvement of daily life are important,” David Roth, Managing Director at FIJI Water had said. “Most of the projects we are involved in may not seem too attractive for many people but we are helping with the projects.”
They have helped with critical areas of water and sanitation in local schools and rural communities because they were the ones that have experienced hardships in these areas for a long time.
Roth said these communities “fell through the cracks of the (government) system”.
The Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation was established in August 2007 to assist rural communities with the provision of sustainable, clean and safe drinking water.
It is registered as a limited liability company and administered by a Board of Directors with a manager and a staff of two.
Various projects have cost it at least $625,000, making life easy for over 15,500 people. There are around 90 more pending projects on the islands of Viti Levu, Yasawas, Kadavu, Vanua Levu and other islands.
Critical partnerships between the Foundation and villages have been formed, enabling everyone to contribute in one way or another. The people assist in the construction and installation works with labour input and committing themselves to good governance of the new system when they are installed and running for the communities.
Applications for assistance are assessed by a Technical Advisory Committee comprising electrical and mechanical engineers, hydro-geologists, marine biologists and representatives from Government’s Water Supplies and Mineral Resources departments, who all assist the Foundation in areas where their professional expertise are required and also supervise construction and installation works which are carried out by contractors.
The nature and size of these projects range from the provision of water tanks and piping or for the larger type, digging of boreholes, electrical pumping into storage tanks and reticulation into individual homes.
There is also a Water Committee consisting of men and women from the village which meets regularly for the duration of the project and manages the facility after its commissioning.
The Foundation also believes that education is a very essential aspect of any successful project such as these and has engaged the services of Partners in Community Development Fiji (PCDF) which conducts training and awareness workshops on water management, sanitation and best practice methods.
The Foundation receives annual funding from four local donors who include the Fiji Water Foundation, Golden Manufacturers, Westpac Banking Corporation and the Vodafone ATH Fiji Foundation while offshore funding is provided by the Rotary International Foundation.
FIJI SUN, 23 May 2009
