Ridge to Reef: Village Water Project

For the past 2 weeks the village has been super busy building a new dam for our drinking water source and a new water storage tank. Each morning the village headman blows the conch shell to signal it’s a work day for anyone who is free and after morning tea they head off. Last year the Water Authority of Fiji surveyed for this project and we raised the money in the village to contribute 10% of the costs (about $2500 FJD).

The water system in the village consists of a small dam 1.5 km up the mountain that pools water into a 2 inch PVC pipe that is then gravity fed all the way down into a 10,000L cement storage tank before being distributed into the village/settlements. The new dam is about 100m uphill from the old one, and it pools spring water, not creek water into the pipe.

A few issues prompted us to pursue this project. Firstly to improve the quality of drinking water that is now threatened by ever expanding farmland as the village population grows and dirt/silt during times of heavy rain (which is very frequent). The new smaller dam will mean less chances of debris blocking the intake, which also happens regularly during downpours. As the population of the village has skyrocketed in the past few decades (Roman Catholics! :), the need for water storage capacity has also grown --hence the construction of an additional 10,000L tank.

They haven’t let me do much to help with construction besides carry a pipe or two, but I’ve been trying to document the process. It’s been a lot of hard work for the men carrying sacks for gravel, sand, and cement on bare-horse back up the mountain. The women have also been hard at work preparing meals everyday for those who help out. We have a few guests from Water Authority in town staying to oversee the completion. They are on track to complete the tank this week, and perhaps switch us to the new water source the following.

In conjunction with the building of the new infrastructure, we’re working the village elders and environment committee to set up a 100m radius protected area around each of our drinking water dams (there is another one that supplies a few of the settlements) where farming will be prohibited and some reforestation of native trees will be done.

Here are a few pictures of what has been completed so far!