Peceli Naviticoko 
Dr. Sivendra Michael
The battle against litter is intensifying, which now calls for more commitment and responsibilities for the Vanua, communities, and even workplaces.
The Ministry of Environment has conducted its first lot of training for litter-preventing officers in the Northern Division.
Permanent Secretary Dr. Sivendra Michael says litter prevention officers will now have the authority to educate the public, monitor littering in their communities, and even issue fines.
“We all want to see a stop to illegal dumping. We want to see that, you know, people are more responsible in how they dispose of their rubbish. But we also think that a large part of this is the behavior and mindset shift that needs to happen amongst our communities, and one very small aspect of all of this is the litter prevention officer training.”
Dr. Micheal says the litter prevention officers will be the advocates for change, living up to the responsibilities that are entrusted by the government in fighting for a better place and solution.
Senior Environment Officer Iva Josivini adds that maintaining the culture of environmental responsibility is also one of the government’s current focuses.
“So we have trained about 70 staff of the ministry to become litter prevention officers, and our aim for this physical year is to train at least 1,000 LPOs across all government ministries and authorities because this is mandated under the Litter Act that we should carry out our task to train public authorities as mandated in the Litter Act to be-come litter prevention officers.”
Litter prevention officers will receive training on key skills, including issuing fines, documenting violations, and pursuing legal action for unpaid fines.
