The Tailevu Provincial Council Chair, Rusiate Tudravu, highlights that flooding issues in the villages are primarily due to drainage problems.

Tudravu explains that inadequate drainage systems and blocked rivers have allowed water to flow back onto the land, exacerbating the flooding.

He is pleased with the recent work carried out on the drainage system in the province.

However, Tudravu stresses that while improvements are being made to land drainage, the next critical step is to clear the rivers and creeks to enable easy water flow.

“For us in Tailevu, especially Tailevu South is the drainage system, and also the drainage of the main rivers that are here. You can see now that there is a lot of water that is inflowing back into the land. That is the reason being that for quite a number of years, these people in the Tailevu South have been neglected about the drainage system.We are thankful for that. Starting last year, this year, we have noted a significant amount of improvement and development that is done to the drainage.”

The Tailevu Provincial Council conducted village profiling, which is being used to align development efforts with the needs of the villages.

This year, villages in Tailevu have been allocated two million dollars from the government to support drainage and other infrastructure improvements.