Two students escaped injuries on Rotuma when the truck they were travelling in hit a pothole, resulting in them being tossed out of the vehicle.
As a result, truck drivers on the island have stopped their operations until the roads are fixed, forcing as many as 300 students to be kept away from school.
Council of Rotuma advisor Dr John Fatiaki summed up the situation, saying the kids were being punished through no fault of theirs.
Referring to the long standing issue, Dr Fatiaki, the 2006 senator for Rotuma, said that initially the Public Works Department (PWD) looked after the maintenance of roads on the island, a responsibility which later fell to the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA).
He said the PWD depot on Rotuma had between 12 and 13 staff members who were equipped with machinery to regularly maintain the road network, but the FRA replaced the PWD with about five to six staff.
“The roads were passable. They had machinery, they had a grader, a dump truck and a JCB (loader),” Dr Fatiaki said.
“And they maintained the roads until January last year when — and this is where our problem really begins — they essentially withdrew from the island.
“So, from January last year, they haven’t had any full-time staff. They’ve had one or two caretakers that would look after the premises but essentially, two people with spades can’t maintain the roads.”
Dr Fatiaki said Flame Tree staff then came to the island to work on the airstrip, contracted by Fiji Airports, and at the time Public Works Minister Ro Filipe Tuisawau also visited the island. He said Flame Tree was engaged to fix the roads and within two weeks, the roads had reverted back to normal.
“That was in September.
“We asked the ministry at that point to look at a constant maintenance program, which means you need to have people working on the road pretty much every day on a constant basis around the island.
“You can’t leave it for three or six months and hope that you’ll put a band aid on it.”
However, Dr Fatiaki said the weather deteriorated and no work was carried out on the maintenance of the roads, thus, these were washed away during heavy rain, resulting in potholes as deep as three feet.
“Obviously, when vehicles go through, they obviously swerve into it and there’s damage to parts of the smaller vehicles, and my understanding is the trucks, which transport the students, one swerved into these potholes.
“I think two of the kids in the back, either physically fell out or jumped out of the truck. I think when that happened, the drivers of the trucks decided collectively they couldn’t run the risk of driving through that.
“Since last Monday, they have ceased transporting the kids. That becomes an issue because now, the kids are being punished and my understanding is that for the last two weeks, the kids that require transport to the one secondary school on the island, other than the ones who live next door to the school, are not attending school.”
When approached for comment yesterday, Ro Filipe said he was aware of the issue and that a team had been dispatched with the required equipment.
“The boat was diverted because of the cyclone,” he said. “So, they will be there next week.”
The minister said he would meet with the Council of Rotuma chairman and Dr Fatiaki to hear out their concerns.
Education Minister Aseri Radrodro also expressed his concerns about the students missing school.
“I requested the honourable Minister for his intervention on the stand taken by transport providers due to poor road conditions,” he said. “We plead with all stakeholders to understand that they play a very important role in ensuring that students attend school.”
