ASSISTANCE for the rural water supply program has continued to decline over the past years as a large part of overseas development assistance to Fiji has been directed towards urban water supply and sewerage.
Fiji Rural Water and Sanitation Master Plan lead consultant Nicholas Pilgrim told a stakeholder’s meeting in Suva last week that investment for such projects in rural areas had been quite low.
“Most of that has come through the Water Authority of Fiji under the Rural Water Supply Program but we see that this has been in decline,” he said.
“So, in 2023 there were 19 projects for rural water schemes. In 2024 only 15 and this year only nine. So the program has declined.
“A large level of overseas development assistance to Fiji in relation to other countries, in fact a large part of that has gone into urban water supply and sewerage.
“Most of that has come under one or two large projects and if you take those out of the equation you find that actually for rural Fiji, the investment has been quite low.”
Mr Pilgrim said that over the past few years, an estimation of less than $US10million ($F22.8m) has been used under the rural program annually.
“As a team, we’ve really gone out of our way to put in place a strong institutional framework under the master plan but above all we recognise all the good work that is happening in Fiji.
“And the master plan is an attempt to recognise that work, and provide an institutional framework that can scale up the lessons learnt and the success stories.”
Infrastructure Minister Ro Filipe Tuisawau said the master plan aligned closely with Fiji’s key national policies and strategies.
