JUST three kilometres inland from Lautoka City, a surprising and promising experiment is unfolding.
Koroipita, the first project developed by the Model Towns Charitable Trust (MTCT), has become critically important for the mass settlement of displaced or disadvantaged people.
As the third stage of the project nears completion, a total of 233 houses as well as a 600-seat community hall, computer school and library, shop, two kindergartens and an office block have been constructed.
A multipurpose sports court and sewage treatment plant has been built and there are plans to develop a light industrial park complex to accommodate the more advanced income generating project operations.
The project, which was started 32 years ago by Peter Drysdale, a former Fiji Pine director and present director of Williams and Gosling Ltd , was a Rotary project until the MTCT formed in 2011.
According to Mr Drysdale, the final stage of the project will add 34 houses to the existing 233, increasing the number to the maximum design scale for a model town to 267 homes with a population of about 1200.
“Simultaneously the project has been building cyclone-safe homes for poor families in the Western Division and the total now stands at 956 homes, housing 4330 people,” he says.
The sturdy homes have been built to withstand severe weather events and Koroipita was tested during Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston. A survey after the Category 5 storm revealed zero damage.
“They are basic but very functional and strongly built,” is how Mr Drysdale describes the homes.
Housing aside, community development plays a vital role in Koroipita, with a specific program designed to provide intensive guidance and support from kindergarten level to adult training and income generation projects.
“The families are guided by the compulsory Family Advancement Plan which spells out their obligations to achieve 100 per cent attendance at school by their children, to plant root and green vegetables and so on.
“This year 17 students were enrolled in tertiary education. The program has been so successful that some families’ income has increased to the level where they wish to move on to formal home ownership in the city.
“At this time, there are nearly 7000 people who have applied for a home at Koroipita. There is huge pressure on the Model Towns team every day but there are no vacant homes available.
“The exciting prospect is the plans to develop a replica or second model town using the same successful prescription. At the same time, MTCT plans to develop a smaller subdivision with stage built concrete homes for sale to the more advanced families who could afford the repayments.
“In this way, the total resettlement solution will be achieved. The people will have a clear goal and guidance to achieve it.”
Mr Drysdale says this is an extremely important model and solution for urban drift and for future resettlement of climate change refugees from within Fiji and from the Pacific Islands.
Presently, there are over 100 people of Polynesian origin, hailing from Kiribati, Tuvalu and Rotuma, residing at Koroipita.
He says their assimilation has been extremely successful.
“In 2014, in one burst of production, the team assisted by hundreds of volunteers built 22 houses in 15 working days. This is the scale needed to meet present and future settlement needs.”
A six-year plan is being refined and will be presented to the Fiji Government and to our development partners New Zealand Aid Programs within a few weeks.
