More than 20,000 villagers in Naitasiri will now have access to sustainable clean drinking water. This follows the launch of the Give Clean Water Naitasiri project last week at Vunidawa.
The project will cater for 91 villages. Manager for Give Clean Water Fiji Trust David Reddy said since 2008 the company had been giving out Sawyer Point One clean water filters to selected rural villages in Fiji.
“So (for) the filters, we are partnering with the Health Ministry,” Mr Reddy said.
“It would take us a year to complete this project and one household will receive a filter at a time.
“The Sawyer Point One filter bucket removes 99.99999 per cent of bacteria and rated to 0.1 micron absolute filtration.
“We have started our pilot project in Nabena Village, and from next week we would start our regular installation with the Ministry of Health and will train some of their team.
“We are hoping for a one-year project but the major factor is the weather and it also depends on the timing and funding.
“After Naitasiri we will decide where to go to and which places to support and mostly we working on areas where there is no clean water and we know it’s mostly the interiors of Fiji.
“We have covered the province of Namosi, Serua, Beqa Island, Yanuca, Navosa, and also in Vanua Levu and other places in the west as well.”
Laisenia Koroibuna, the village headman for Nawaisogo Village in Naitasiri, said they were grateful for such assistance from the charitable organisation.
“There are 381 villagers in our village and our water source is right in the forest. The animals also use it for drinking and bathing,” Mr Koroibuna said.
“When the team from Give Clean Water Fiji Trust came to conduct this awareness, we were really fortunate and blessed because we could carry the filter and the bucket from one place to another. “It also saves us money from buying water tank.”
The Trust was founded by Darrel Larson, a company that started in San Diego, United States.
Mr Larson had a vision and mission to make a tangible difference in the world and solve a global issue which is to provide clean water to those who don’t have access to it, Mr Reddy said.
