People want the Government to address challenges they face with our roads, hospitals and health, and water.
The latest Tebbutt Times Poll is showing people feel these issues are top infrastructure priorities for the Government to address.
Survey participants were asked to think only about infrastructure and what the top priority should be for the Government to address.
Roads stood out as the top infrastructure priority by 42 per cent of respondents and it was significantly higher in the Western Division (48 per cent) when compared with the Central Division (39 per cent) or combined Northern and Eastern divisions (37 per cent).
After the poll, which was conducted from July 4-12, 20 per cent of respondents picked health and hospitals as their first concern. We note that water was also mentioned and came in third with 17 per cent of mentions overall.
It was more likely to be mentioned in the Central Division (22 per cent) when compared with either the Western Division or combined Northern and Eastern divisions (14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively). After the top three priorities, we see mentions for public housing and electricity.
Electricity was of higher concern for those in the Northern and Eastern divisions.
The results confirm what we have always known about concern over the state of some of our roads around the country, the state of our health system, water and electricity.
So we again raise these issues as major challenges we hope the powers that be will address.
In saying that, we reflect once more on road markings, and highlight the absence of centre-line markings in many roads in the Suva-Nausori corridor.
This is dangerous in bad weather and we ask the Fiji Roads Authority why it isn’t using reflective paint to assist drivers keep to their lanes at night and in bad weather?
Surely good roads, properly marked, would assist in promoting road safety!
Surely knowing where you as a driver are supposed to be on the road even in very bad weather conditions, could assist in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of other road users.
We also raise the issue of the state of our hospitals, and we pose this question to the powers that be about our electricity — why are we having constant power cuts?
In terms of our health system, good hospitals, with up-to-date facilities and motivated doctors and nurses could bring about confidence in the system.
Awareness programs for the masses could assist in fighting major issues such as NCDs for instance.
Even water cuts in some areas are getting ridiculous. The poll has confirmed how people feel about these major challenges.
And surely, no one would be impressed. But lest we forget, these issues have all not just popped out of the woodworks.
They have been around for quite some time, some for years. We will continue to look up to those in authority to do the right thing and bring about some semblance of order soon.
