Living in despair
By Robert Matau, Fiji Times Online, February 01, 2009
A family of Mavua fishing on the Sigatoka river bank after flood waters receded. Below, left, Brothers Aminio Waqairatu, 6, and Epeli Nawasekadavu, 4, helping out at home with the preparation of lunch. Flood waters washed away their farmlands in the backg
EVERY time it floods in the Sigatoka Valley there is a price to pay for farmers and dwellers there.
Almost an acre of their farms is swept away and gravel and sand is left behind to thwart any attempts to rescue their livelihood for a good six months.
The floods may have left three weeks ago but for the farmers in Nabitu and Vunaqoru in the upper reaches of the Kavanagasau Road, they have to bite the bullet and wait for the cyclone season to end before the recovery process begins.
In Nabitu Jaswant Singh, Ram Raj and Jitend Prasad said they had lost almost 30 acres of land to the floods three weeks ago.
"What the floods left behind was fine sand and gravel," Raj said.
"You can build a house with that," he said pointing to the barren land which he used to plant eggplant and tomatoes.
"We do not have anything to buy food, school equipment and pay fees for our children." But the face of despair belonged to villagers at Vunaqoru - even without anything to eat they managed to present a sevusevu to the Fiji Times team, welcoming us to their village.
Alipate Dakevu said they were now looking for remaining breadfruit trees for sustenance.
But for them it has also meant a spiritual dimension.
"We have learnt in our scriptures to share and on Sunday we have decided that anything we get we should share as this is true Christianity," he said.
"But food is running out and for the past three weeks we have yet to get any disaster relief supplies from Government.
"We cannot send our children to school because we do not have the money to do so.
"We ask Government to please hear our plea and assist us in anyway it can."
At the same time it would be right to acknowledge the efforts of Non Government Organisations and all organisations, including Government to assist those affected.
They just need to be bolder to get to the hard to reach places.
Thanks should also go to the President of the United States Barack Obama for signing a new environmental measure aimed at combating greenhouse gas emissions and ending US dependency on foreign energy.
On Monday he ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider California's request to set its own stricter limits on vehicle carbon dioxide emissions in a bid to combat global warming.
Declaring that the US "will not be held hostage to dwindling resources", Obama also directed the department of transportation to move forward with setting vehicle fuel efficiency standards for 2011 by March this year.
"The federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Obama said at the White House.
"The days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts. We will be guided by them."
Meanwhile, the US state department is expected to name Todd Stern, a senior White House official under Bill Clinton, the former US president, as its new envoy on climate change, officials told Reuters news agency on Monday.
This will be a major turnaround to the Bush Administration's eight years of not acting on calls to reduce emissions and failing to act on the California request.
Today for the farmers in the valley it may be late, but better late than not at all.
Vinaka Mr Obama.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment