Clean as in Silana

IF there is one thing the villagers of Silana can teach their fellow Fijians across the country, it would be how to keep their village clean.

Silana Village is part of the Dawsamu District in the province of Tailevu. It is on the northern coast, the area where Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston made landfall, and was one of the many villages that was severely affected by Severe TC Winston which destroyed their houses and plantations.

With more than 30 households, the recovery phase after the destruction of the Category 5 monster was not easy, as this meant cleaning their surrounding and rebuilding their houses.But, this did not to deter the people of Silana in the least.

Few months after Severe TC Winston ravaged their village, leaving almost everyone homeless, their assistant village headman Sanaila Rokotuivuna travelled to South Korea to be part of a workshop on the Saemaul Undong (new village movement) concept which South Korea had adopted in 1970.

According to Wikipedia, the concept was introduced by the then South Korea president Park Chung -hee in modernising the economy in rural South Korea at the same time promoting self-governance and co-operation.

The same concept was initiated in the village of Silana and is working miracles for the people as it has taught Silana villagers the importance of keeping their surroundings clean.

“Here in the village, we have two projects. The first one is to educate our villagers on proper rubbish disposal and second one is the utilisation of unused land around our village,” Mr Rokotuivuna, who is also the Dawasamu District representative to the Tailevu Provincial Council, said

“Before we had just three big sacks at one corner of the village, and people were asked to go and put their household rubbish in the sacks. We found that it was difficult.

“So now everyone has three rubbish bins in their own homes.”

Mr Rokotuivuna said the whole village was part of a one-day training where Mr Rokotuivuna, with the help of two other men, visited each household. They taught household members why it was important to separate their rubbish and how some items could be recycled and become a source of income for families.

“So each family is supposed to have three bins; one to contain cans and tins, one to have leftover food and the other plastic and glass items, and it is working well because ladies are now using packets of noodles, biscuits and cookies to make coin bags and purses and selling it again,” Mr Rokotuivuna said.

“Also, all the cans and tins that we collect, we transport it to a company based in Naboro. This company crushes and press these cans together and sells it to another company that’s based overseas. Part of the money they get comes back to us.”

Mr Rokotuivuna has to submit monthly reports to the Tailevu Provincial Council office, which then sends his reports of the projects to the Saemaulmaul Undong Centre in Korea.

“What we are telling the villagers is that this is one way we can ensure that our village is clean. We are also keeping our children and even ourselves safe from skin diseases and other diseases that we can contract through the improper disposal of rubbish and also this is our way of educating our children about climate change,” he said.

“You see the main outcome of the project is those three things and it’s working well, because villagers of Silana are following the proper rubbish disposal rule closely.”

Mr Rokotuivuna said people were also taught about compost manure, and the villagers were using food waste and peelings as manure for their vegetable gardens and also flower gardens.

“Some of the villagers didn’t know how to start a compost garden but now they are aware and it has really helped them a lot,” he said.