Many countries in the world were preparing to see a new day on January 1, 2000, AD. Scores of journalists and researchers came to Fiji at the dawn of the new millennium in Fiji. They stayed in Taveuni as it was closer to the International Date Line (IDL) in the Pacific and provided full coverage of reports and images to other parts of the world. There were many fears articulated that the world would face the computer systems’ inability to distinguish dates correctly had the potential to bring down the catastrophe to worldwide infrastructures for computer-reliant industries (Lee Jae Won, ). However, companies and organisations in some countries have checked, fixed, and upgraded their computer systems to address these. While some commentators and experts argued that the coverage of the problem largely amounted to scaremongering, it was only the safe passing of the main event itself, January 1, 2000, that fully quelled public fears (Uenuma & Francine, 2019). Some scholars and authors have predicted the end of the world in 2000 in books, movies, and hypothetical articles published which aroused fears as well as apprehensions (Weekly World News, 1999).
Here in Fiji, and like in other countries preparations started in 1997 to celebrate the new millennium in a big way to welcome the beginning and to see the first sunrise. Many of us are fortunate to have seen the event, and it will take many generations to see the next one. Funds were allocated to the municipal councils to decorate towns and cities as “eco-friendly” which means nature-friendly having a “green economy” concept (UNEP,2024). There were many areas of beautification works being carried out such as brick-made gardens close to streets along the footpaths with varieties of flowering plants, new designs of streetlights, and wooden benches at strategic locations near the bus stops. All these provided a revamped façade of the towns. More solar lights were located in all areas of town and on main highways away from towns. The idea had been to use less fossil fuel and reduce the impacts of high temperatures leading to climate change and natural disasters. Gradual changes in the new beginning of 2000 had a lot of aspirations among residents and tourists to enjoy visiting with added greenery features and decorations. One of the ideas was to reconnect the elderly people to socialise in towns to enjoy the beauty and reminisce about life.
Awareness and actions
THE media organisations in Fiji had placed a lot of propaganda to cause much awareness regarding the UNCED Conference of June 14, 1992, the “Earth Summit” and the reduction of Green House Gases under the Kyoto Protocol known as “Agenda 21” with regard to sustainable development. Many designs of building structures and billboards used green colours to incorporate the concept of eco-friendly designs by the use of light-coloured paints to reduce evaporated heat reflected from the buildings and paved street surfaces.
The town boundaries were seen as having varieties of foliage plants, palm trees, and flowering gardens. Town decoration committees were established to empower the residents and be part of enhancing the beautifying their respective areas.
In some high-rise buildings windows were protected by awnings or overhand with adequate provisions to mitigate extensive sun rays from the western side after mid-day. The other reason was to allow the window to be opened for fresh air, should the air conditioners stop due to power failures. Due consideration was given to public buildings to build ramps so that disadvantaged groups of people may have the opportunity to use this facility when required and derive services. It has been seen at the entrance of the Suva City Council building at the Victoria Prde, Suva. The workers were encouraged to use the steps and avoid lifts in public buildings to save power and be healthy. In large shopping malls and airports, eco-friendly toilets, bathrooms, and urinals were installed and were fully automatically operated. The Rewa Provincial Holding building in Victoria Prde has been designed as one of the best models of the new millennium in Fiji, as it has many features of ideas reflected in the new era ‘Agenda 21’ following the Earth Summit. The author of this article shared the knowledge with the students as part of a topic covered in the Regional and Urban Development Course for Bachelors in Environment Course from FNU.
Because of changes in businesses, one-stop shopping malls were constructed around 2000 which include Tapoo City, Dolphins, and MCHH few others. Such concepts were also provided by the government departments to ease any inconveniences to members of the public.
The building designs and architectural structures were constructed to accommodate multiple level floors, a few exceeding 18 levels. The architects, structural engineers, and town planners took into account wind speeds exceeding (209 -259 km/hr.) to ensure protection against category level five hurricanes as well as earthquakes and other disasters. The architects and other relevant authorities also considered the excessive temperature generated from land and sea and have impacts on such high-rise buildings. Other areas of concern include the conservation of water and energy, the use of sound building materials to reduce imposed loads on foundations, and stability from external forces.
The hidden concepts illustrated herein are orderly development of land, zoning, land conservation, and heritage, reduction in emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), safe access for disabled persons, as well as other features inculcated under Agenda 21 of the UN Sustainable Development Document under Sections 35 and 36.
Politics and development
For any government to progress and serve its people, it is equally important to comply with charters, conventions, and treaties, in particular with the United Nations. This is apart from the relevant laws, policies, and decrees made by the government.
The government of the day has to comply with all the requirements alluded to and also seek much-needed support. In Fiji, the Labour (Coalition) Government was formed after the election in 1999, and there were hopes of “putting people first”, as its motto, which won a landslide victory. On the other hand, rival forces were hatching plans to remove the elected government by forceful means.
The i-Taukei nationalists were successful in the ‘coup d’état’, followed by another coup that took its toll in 2006. The military regime under Army Commander Frank Bainimarama ruled for eight years, and fresh elections were held in 2014. The former prime minister of Fiji, Mr Bainimarama, ruled Fiji for 16 years, his victory resulted from two general elections held in 2014 and 2018, respectively. The FijiFirst Party had its vision to build a fair and just society where the benefits of progress are spread nationwide to all. However, the present government is now led by the veteran Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka with a Coalition Government. The Collation Government has emphasised rebuilding trust, and respect for human rights, promoting accountability, and transparency, and strengthening our state institutions as their ‘new chapter’.
The point of raising politics here is that for good governance and improving the quality of living, a stable government with a capable leader is needed. Political changes in the leadership had been of much concern over a few decades, which caused impacts on national development. Many infrastructural projects had to be delayed or even shelved due to economic reasons such as the diversion of funds to other needy areas which were not initially budgeted.
Disasters and financial support
During the period after 2000, few natural disasters devastated Fiji; drought commencing in 2002 due to El Nino effects, followed by extensive flooding because of the category four Cyclone Evans in 2012 (IFRC, 2012), extensive damages sustained from severe tropical cyclones of category five magnitude Cyclone Winston 2016, Cyclone Yasa 2020. The intensity and frequency of hurricanes in the Pacific have increased since 2000. Before it was usually category three and has been because of a rise in temperature on land by 1.59 °C while over the ocean it rose by 0.88 °C. In 2020, the temperature was 1.2 °C above the pre-industrial era. In September 2023, the temperature was 1.75 °C above pre-industrial level and during the entire year of 2023 is expected to be 1.4 °C above (OCHA, 2023). Therefore, we can expect the unexpected! The global pandemic of COVID-19 has affected many in Fiji and elsewhere, with restrictions on employment and loss of jobs causing social and economic problems. The World Bank’s board of executive directors has approved a $US50million ($F102.7m) credit to support Fiji’s recovery from tropical cyclones Harold and Yasa.
The total damage and losses because of Cyclone Winston assessed amounted to $1.42billion, equivalent to 31 per cent of GDP (OCHA, 24). In addition, the government had to spend millions of dollars in assisting the people of Fiji in supporting poverty alleviation, education of children, and areas of rehabilitation to houses and schools (FijiFirst,2022). According to the WHO 2023, the COVID-19 pandemic was a virus disease affecting 772,838745 people with 5.4m deaths globally (WHO 2023). It had impacts on our economy and the workforce for more than a year. Various areas of restrictions were placed on the freedom of movement of people and the compulsory use of masks. The Fijian government had to borrow huge sums of money both locally and offshore and seek logistic support for the necessities of the people. These disasters had placed Fiji almost on the brink of severe unanticipated tragedies from different perspectives such as social, economic, health, and other needy areas of human development.
A brief detail on the types of support provided by the former government of Mr Bainimarama is as follows:
- Cash transfer support family increased from $35 to $127;
- $50 food vouchers to 23,817;
- $11.3million to support education by way of bus transport;
- 66,000 unemployed people were supplied with food;
- $500m for unemployment support;
- $1.4m for 50,000 for faster health care support from G;
- Subsidy from government earning less than $30,000;
- $565m in free education inclusive of primary, secondary, and ECE; and
- $250m paid to teachers during COVID-19 in 2020-2021 (FijiFirst, 2014).
On an optimistic note, the inflation rate had dropped from 29.1 per cent to 24.1 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic period according to World Bank Report (ditto).
Millennium development goals (MDGs)
The United Nations had made its plans and programs to see changes globally, preparations by the United Nations commenced in 1997 (A/RES/53/25 19 November 1998). It had set the ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MGDs) that had made resolutions to project targets for realising these values around the world by 2015 and served as the focus to work throughout the period in the following areas:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
- Achieve universal primary education;
iii. Promote gender equality and empower women;
- Reduce child mortality;
- Improve maternal health;
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
vii. Ensure environmental sustainability; and
viii. Global partnership for development.
Fiji incorporated MGDs into Strategic Development Plans (SDP) after the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in 2002 and was able to achieve six out of eight MGDs (Government of Fiji, 2004). The government emphasised human development, education, and health as areas of concern. Other areas of concern were mass migration and lack of investments.
Solutions to problems
Among many areas of concern raised, climate change has been the root cause of many concerns reflected in numerous natural disasters (ABC News,2024). These include deforestation, tectonic plate shifts, soil erosion, global warming, pollution and changes to the natural environment because of developments that have not been well documented to identify areas of concern to the environment.
However, there are many grey areas to dwell on commencing from micro to macro levels in addressing these areas as mentioned. Others may include adaptive technologies, options to use transport alternatives (bicycles, buses, trains), and carpools. Health education on personal and family health as well as promotion of food diets and community health.
The stakeholders are to be involved in providing training on waste management and empowering women in protecting their carbon footprint by using energy-efficient fossil fuels and planting trees after cutting. Authorities should be involved in conserving water, and energy, and concepts on reuse, recycling, and reducing waste. The burning of forests and solid wastes must be discouraged by all the communities. Education about the environment must be compulsorily provided to all school children from their earlier days. Support from international agencies such as NGOs, CSOs, and faith-based organisations, experts, consultants, and cadres of other professionals may be required in their respective areas of advocacies.
The government of the day must be involved to ensure laws, policies, treaties MOUs, and conventions signed are complied with by regulatory bodies and agencies. It is also incumbent upon the government to work with foreign embassies and members of the diplomatic corps and seek much-needed support in areas of concern such as relocating villages and settlements to new areas because of the rise in sea levels in the coastal areas.
Areas concerning health disparities and poverty alleviation must be looked at holistically, and everyone must support the need to conserve the planet’s “Mother Earth” and nurture it without many alterations and destructions. Lest we all suffer from further unknown damaging calamities.
- KESHWA N KRISHNA, a former lecturer (retired) used to teach a regional and urban planning course for the final year Bachelor in Environment Health Program. The course book was written by him and was published with consent from the Faculty of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth Australia in 2003. The views expressed in this article are his and not of this newspaper.
