Urban flooding will continue to hit families unless town councils receive direct drainage funding, says Nasinu Town Council special administrator Felix Magnus.
Mr Magnus told this newspaper that councils could not keep drains clear without proper resourcing.
“The towns did not have a drainage budget,” he said.
“Give the town councils the budget so they could execute the cleaning up of drains and blocked waterways.”
He said the situation had worsened because of illegal dumping and poor community behaviour.
“Garbage is a contributing factor.
“People continue to dump, and there is blatant disregard for the environment laws of Fiji.”
He said maintenance costs had climbed.
“The rising cost to maintain the drains came about through irresponsible behaviour of people,” he said, adding that many families suffered major losses during floods.
“The losses that households encountered ran into thousands of dollars-damaged furniture, TVs apart from the silt that went into the house.”
He said rubbish dumped into rivers and on roadsides clogged waterways and put council workers at risk.
“Our workers had to go in and clean out this garbage, and it posed a risk to them when they needed to clear the blocked drainages.”
Mr Magnus said tougher action was needed.
“We would like government to put in more stringent laws and stronger penalties so there can be deterrent,” he said.
“We asked that common sense prevail so we can work together for a cleaner and better Fiji.”
