The 300 villagers of Barotu Village in Ra Province, now have safe and clean drinking water for drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning purposes.
All these done by just turning on their taps.

It is yet another project undertaken by the Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation and included sourcing water from a borehole, pumped into water tanks in the village as well as piping to individual homes, all completed at a cost of just over $30,000.

Because the borehole and tank are located a distance from the village, a diesel generator had to be installed to provide energy for the pump.

The facility was commissioned at the weekend by the manager of FIJI Water Foundation, Molly Powers and witnessed by the Turaga-ni-Koro, several villagers and donors to the foundation.

Ms Powers, who is from the United States and speaks fluently in the Ra dialect, addressed the gathering in their own language.

She said the FIJI Water Foundation as well as other donors, which include the Vodafone ATH Fiji Foundation and Westpac Banking Corporation, conducted their business in Fiji and in doing so, were conscious of their moral obligation that they must give something back to the community.

The provision of funding to provide much needed clean and safe drinking water to disadvantaged and impoverished settlements was a demonstration of their corporate social responsibility policy.

Ms Powers said the FIJI Water Foundation in particular, was involved in funding assistance towards health and education activities throughout Fiji.

The villagers previously walked several metres to collect and bring back containers of water to their homes for cooking as well as for bathing and washing.

Established in October 2007, the foundation has been helping rural communities throughout Fiji in providing sustainable and safe drinking water.

To date it has 91 completed projects costing close to a million dollars and benefiting around 33,950 people with 140 more developing projects on Viti Levu, Yasawas, Kadavu, Vanua Levu and other islands.

These projects are a partnership between the foundation and the settlement or village, the former providing the funding and the village on its part, making its people available to help in the construction and installation works with labour input.

The foundation receives annual funding from the three local donors while offshore funding is provided by the Rotary International Foundation.

Source: FIJI SUN 4 May 2010