RESIDENTS of Ba’s Vunisamaloa district took issue with the Public Works Department’s (PWD) haphazard removal of gravel from a popular swimming location on the Ba River, claiming it was the cause of a boy’s drowning two weeks prior.
According to an article in The Fiji Times on Tuesday, December 1, 1981, the locals said if the PWD tried to take any more gravel, they would stop them.
The residents were concerned over the death of 11-year-old Latchman Mani, who went swimming at Vunisamaloa two weeks prior — on November 15 — and drowned without anyone knowing.
It was not until the same afternoon when Atis, a six-year-old, nearly drowned that his whereabouts was questioned.
When Atis was rescued, the people started looking for Mani, who had been with him.
He was found a few minutes later, dead on the riverbed, Sitla Prasad, the man who dived for Mani’s body, told The Fiji Times.
Mr Prasad said hundreds of locals and visitors who travelled from a distance had used the area at Vunisamaloa as a picnic, bathing, swimming, and washing spot.
However, residents claimed the PWD destroyed it when it cleared gravel from the riverbed, leaving large, crater-like holes all over the place.
“The riverbed was level from bank to bank and people could wade across it before the PWD began removing the gravel,” Mr Prasad said.
“Now that dredging made large holes in the ground, kids are at risk of falling into one.”
Some of the holes were 13 feet deep at low tide.
They said Mani had drowned in one of those holes.
The article stated that five months before the incident, the PWD ceased clearing gravel from the area due to grievances raised by the locals.
“But the damage had been done and a child had been killed.”
There wasn’t a road to the riverbank, and cars could drive down to the riverbed at low tide which was one of the reasons the location had been so popular.
“There were numerous other places on the Ba River where gravel could be removed, without singling out one that was being utilised by locals,” he had previously stated.
Kem Karan, 51, a resident in the area for 35 years, had said the removal of the gravel was bad. It had deepened some parts of the riverbed. This had been the cause of the boy’s drowning, he had said.
The article had reported another resident, who had lived there all his life, Ganga Prasad, 53, had told The Fiji Times “this had been the first time someone had drowned in the swimming spot”.
“If the PWD comes again to remove gravel, we will stop them.
“They had stopped them about five months ago and they had not returned to the area,” he said.
Devi Prasad, 48, who had lived in the area for 38 years, had said, “The PWD had made the riverbed deep.
“That’s why the boy had drowned.
“It had spoiled the spot which a lot of people had used for washing clothes and having their bath.”
