Living with road, water problems for too long

By Vatapuia Maiava 12 October 2016, 12:00AM

They are the basic necessities.

Water and proper road infrastructure is as basic as they come. 

Yet for Tuilausoliga Peatu, from the village of Leauvaa-uta, he said the village people have been suffering from water and road problems for far too long.

Tuilausoliga is currently training to be a pastor for the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Aged 47, Tuilausoliga lives in his house by himself and says that the ongoing problems makes life a little harder for the people of his village. “I live at this house alone,” he told the Village Voice.

“One of the biggest problems for me and the rest of the people in village is the water. We are always asked to pay our monthly water bills but most of the time we only get water for only one week out of that whole month.”

“The way I see it, we are suffering because of this problem. We have no water and the water pipes are dry.” Other than the water issues, Tuilausoliga also described the road problems.

“We have many families living up here and we all suffer the same way,” he said.

“Other people have land up here and they are starting to come up here to build their houses which will result in an increase of cars using this road.”

“If you look at the state of the road you will notice that that it’s very bad. It’s such a bad road and it will affect the increasing number of residence here.”

If those two problems weren’t bad enough, Tuilausoliga says that living solely off of a plantation also comes with its own set of problems.

“Another problem we face is the money we get is very limited,” he said. “What I mean by this is that those who are employed are lucky because they can easily make loans as for families living on plantations, whatever they make is all they will get. If we need a lot of money all of a sudden then it’s very hard for us to make loans.” Tuilausoliga continued on describing what life was like in the village.

“Life up here in terms of work is the same everywhere,” he said.

“We don’t clear too much of our lands for crops but we still work hard growing our own food and selling the produce for a bit of money. The land owned by many families up here is very limited; it’s not too big so we have to make the most of the little space we have. We always work in way that doesn’t wear out the land.”

Aside from Tuilausoliga’s pastor trainings, he makes a living from his plantation.

“Many families living up here rely a lot on their plantations,” he said. “They take their produce to the market or maybe even cook some of the taro and bananas to sell in front of Farmer Joe.”

“It’s the only way we can live properly. For me personally I make my money from the crops I grow. I grow pumpkins then I sell it for a little extra cash.”

“I also receive a lot of help from family members overseas.”

By Vatapuia Maiava 12 October 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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