Naboutini Village in Serua backs Fiji’s COP23 Presidency

Naboutini villagers pose for a photo along the government funded sea wall which stretches for about 2metres along the village boundary protecting it from rising sea levels. Photo: Fonua Talei

The people of Naboutini Village in Serua have shown their support for Fiji’s presidency to the COP23 conference in Bonn, Germany this November.

Village headman Ilai Korotabua said their efforts to minimise the effects of climate change in the village was exactly in line with our COP23 presidency agenda.

“Whenever there is a big tide or due to bad weather our village gets flooded to the extent that we are able to row our boats showing how deep the water gets,” Mr Korotabua said during Day Two of the Climate Change Week tour.

“We finally got assistance with the construction of our 200 metres sea wall and in the past few years when cyclones hit Fiji our village was no longer affected by floods.”

Funded by the Government, the seawall cost about $200,000 and was completed in 2015.

Mr Korotabua said their crops which are getting smaller in size compared to how big it was before.

“We support and are grateful to the Prime Minister for his leadership to the COP23 conference in Bonn, Germany in November,” he said.

“We keep our surroundings clean and with the support of hotels around the coral coast we do not dump our rubbish, we keep it and there are trucks paid by the hotels to come and collect our rubbish.”

He said Government has had to reclaim the land for about two metres from the initial village boundary to where the seawall now stands.

“Previously village elders had placed large rocks by the seashore to act as barriers however it had weathered causing soil erosion.”

The village of Naboutini is home to about 434 villagers.

Edited by Mohammed Ali

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