Residents of Nukuloa in Ba are demanding answers over what caused the death of seven people in their community.
The sugar cane farming community has been rocked by the sudden deaths of their loved ones, most of who were over 60 years of age.
Resident Aswant Nand is one such person demanding answers after losing his 80-year-old father last month, while his 70-year-old mother is admitted at Lautoka Hospital in critical condition.
Mr Nand said that they could not understand how his father could have fallen ill and succumbed to diarrhoea within days.
“He passed away on August 29,” said Mr Nand.
According to Mr Nand, his father had gotten diarrhoea a few days before his demise, upon which he was taken to the Balevuto Health Centre, screened by doctors and given medication.
He returned home after. However, the pain persisted and Mr Nand’s father was admitted upon returning to hospital. He tragically passed away “a few hours later”.
Mr Nand believed, like every other resident affected by these deaths, that their “contaminated” water supply was the cause of his father’s death.
Another longtime resident Harish Chand said his 80-year-old father was discharged from Ba Hospital on Saturday.
Mr Chand, who lives near the Water Authority of Fiji-owned Balevuto Dam, said each person that died all had the same water source.
“During the dry season, this is our main water source,” said Mr Chand.
“There would be times when small debris would go into the dam and they would have to clean it out and sometimes we would store the water in a bottle and find the water dirty.
“Every person that uses water from that dam knows this.”
Another household where an 88-year-old woman passed away from the same illness revealed to this newspaper that they have reverted to using water from a borehole.
“It is much safer for us to use water from the borehole than to drink water from the tap,” said one member of the grieving family.
According to the Health Ministry, the series of deaths could have been caused by a contaminated water source while the Water Authority of Fiji has denied claims that a carcass had contaminated the water supply