What’s the real water story?

14 August 2017, 12:00AM

A recent Water Conference was held in Samoa highlighting its importance and the S.W.A. Managing Director is urging people to contact her organization about water problems. This has left the public confused. On the other hand, there are frequent stories each day in the Village Voice feature where citizens complain of no access to water or water tanks and little help from authorities. Lizzy Hunt had the chance to talk to a few people from rural areas and around Apia and these are their opinions:

 

Simati Samoa, 47, Toamua Uta

Water is one of our basic needs to survive and if we don’t have a good source of water or even have water, life will be so difficult because you can live without everything else but you can’t live without water. In my village, our water sometimes goes off and that sometimes lasts for weeks, In my opinion it’s a must to have a good source of water everyday use by our families and the government should always help the people with their need for water.

 

Doreen Doreen, 26, Papauta 

By now everyone should have no more problems with water because Samoa is such a small island and it should be easy for the government to check every family and village as to whether their water supply is OK or not. My village has no problems with our water but there are other families who are in need of water and are still struggling to find ways to get it. Without a regular rainfall they just ‘borrow’ water from our taps or that of other families. Yes, water is life.

 

Noramaneta Iopu, 70, Aleisa

Where I come from, there’s no water and we rely on the rain for water to fill up our water tanks for the family use like food, washing and baths. As one of the important basic needs in life, water is a must to have every time and right now we don’t have any connection with the water. So my request to the government is please hear us out.

 

Julien Stowers, 47, Sinamoga

It’s just a simple answer, without water we can’t survive. We can live without electricity or food but without water, it will be too difficult to live. In my own village, the water is ok except for a few families who have water problems. I suggest that the government must offer help for them.

 

Fati Walter, 77, Aleisa

In the side where I reside, this is one of the issues that we are facing at the moment, we are having a problem with our water supply. There was this time when the government set up water pipes and we thought then the water system was going to work. However everything turned out differently than we expected. There was no water and apparently they wanted to set up a water meter but we didn’t accept that because how can they set up a meter when there was no water for this long? My advice to the government is to bear in mind that not all the people in Samoa have a connection to the water supply We need water, especially during the dry season and when our water tanks are empty.

 

14 August 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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