TO mitigate the impact of future dry spells in the Western Division, officials at the Commissioner Western’s office carried out a scoping exercise to identify water sources that remain resilient during the drier conditions.

West divisional planning officer Sitiveni Tavaga said they covered about 90 per cent of the division.

“After completing the project, we were able to identify these water sources and we estimated a total of $7.4million would be needed to upgrade these water sources so it could be used by nearby communities,” Mr Tavaga said

He said two projects received funding from the Prime Minister’s office this week.

The first is in Namarasa, Kanacia, Dakadaka and Malamala in Nadi and about 3000 people will benefit from this project.

“The project cost the PM’s office $463,000 and this project will solve the problem of lack of water in these areas.

“Right now, we are just waiting for the Solicitor-General to sign our memorandum of agreement and as soon as it is vetted, we will go into the implementation process.”

He said the second was a $150,000 water project on Malolo Island.

“So the whole idea of the mitigation projects is to identify water sources that are still available during the dry period which can supply water to their affected communities.

“For these two projects, the Prime Minister’s office has agreed to provide the funding and as we go along, we will secure more funding from other areas to implement the other projects that we have already identified during our survey.”