Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad says the coalition government cannot solve all the problems that have landed with them, in three months.
Professor Prasad highlighted this during the debate on the Review Report of the Water Authority of Fiji Annual Report 2017 where he says the task for the government is a big one and it presents significant challenges.
He says they have been in government for only three months and he can understand why there is so much sensitivity from the other side when they talk about what the problem is because they can’t take the fact that they are highlighting the problems that they have to deal with.
He says the Members of the Opposition have been invited to the National Economic Summit and he hopes all of them will turn up and they can have some good discussion in some thematic areas.
He says WAF over the last 6 years has been provided about $1.5 billion and out of that, $511.3 million was operating expenditure while $922.6 million was for capital infrastructure and a significant portion of that was for the Viria Water Project.
Professor Prasad says non-revenue water has been a problem for a long time and it also means that they are not only losing appropriate supply but they are also losing approximately $25 million a year because of that leakage.
He says people understand that they cannot resolve this problem in three months but he can assure the people that they are already having discussions about the maintenance plan.
Professor Prasad says they want to ensure that in the next few years and budgets, they have a specific agenda to provide a maintenance plan so that all Ministers in their respective ministries take the responsibility and ensure that that is done.
While speaking during the debate, Opposition MP Inia Seruiratu says providing water tanks for the people will save a lot of money for the people.
Seruiratu adds that it will be good if people who live in the urban areas have a water tank for every household which will save a lot of money for the government as he hopes that the rainwater policy and its funding will continue.
He adds that most of the water projects constructed in the 50s and 60s are in the same state today as they are not purified and treated and people are drinking water straight from the source therefore the government had initiated an Ecological Purification System that gets rids of bacteria.
Seruiratu says that it is initiated in various parts of Fiji but there is still a large number of people drinking straight from the source.
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