Update: 5:02PM EIGHTY per cent of Fiji’s total population has access to treated and reticulated water.
This was revealed by President Jioji Konrote in his speech at the United Nations World Water Day 2017 at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy this week.
“Currently, 25 per cent have access to wastewater facilities and extensive work is underway to upgrade wastewater reticulation networks to extend coverage in urban and peri-urban areas,” Mr Konrote said.
“We’ve made huge investments in this area and have partnered with donor agencies and investment banks to spread the enormous health benefits of proper sanitation as widely as possible.
“As a small island developing nation, we have considerations as well that relate directly to the growing threat of climate change.”
He also enlightened those that were present about the strongest cyclone to ever make landfall in the Southern Hemisphere, Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.
“While many services dropped out, water supply to our major population centres remained normal. And for most of our affected rural areas, water supply was back to normal in a few weeks. So we’ve made resilience a priority, and those investments have paid off.”
Mr Konrote said there was plenty to glean from Fiji’s own experience in increasing access to water and sanitation, particularly in the context of climate resilient development.
This year’s theme for World Water Day was ‘Wastewater’, which was in line with Sustainable Development Goal target 6.3, which calls for improved water quality by reducing pollution, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater by 2030 and increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.
