So why don't they get fined $1 million dollars?

from w
Today's Fiji Times - the FSC say....at last..... they they caused the river pollution. It's been going on for decades I expect, so why weren't they fined? Thank you to the students of All Saints Secondary School for persisting in analysing the water quality of the Qawa River and alerting the adults that this is a problem that is not going away.

FSC takes blame for polluted river
By Theresa Ralogaivau
Monday, November 24, 2008

THE Fiji Sugar Corporation has accepted blame for pollution in the Qawa River after test results showed it dumped an excessive amount of untreated waste and toxic substance into it, killing marine life.

Test results presented to the Labasa mill management showed there was a heavy sugar discharge into the river.

Tests showed it was at an appaling 470,000 mg/litre when the normal standard was nil sugar presence.

Hot water poured into the Qawa River after being used for cooling purposes in the mill raised the river temperature, killing river plants and vapourising useful gases.

The bio chemical oxygen demand of a river, which is a gauge of the effectiveness of an industry's waste water treatment, showed 18,480 mg/litre when the accepted standard was 40mg/litre.

Macuata Rural Local Authority board secretary Rakesh Kumar said the river was in a bad state because of the high level of pollutant being dumped into it by FSC.

"Mostly in pristine rivers the BOD is 1mg/litre, in moderately polluted rivers, it has a BOD range of two 8mg/litre yet the amount in the river is beyond comparison even with the 600 mg/litre for untreated sewerage," Mr Kumar said.

There was also an unacceptable high level of nitrogen and ethanol discharge along with calcium, which is found in lime, used in the mill's production process.

The results explained that the stench emitted from the river, and which permeated the atmosphere for miles around, had a distinct rotten-egg smell which is a relevant feature of hydrogen sulphide.

Test samples were taken in two stages from eight spots along the river. The first stage was before the mill resumed crushing and after crush started. "Prior to the mill opening for crushing the BOD was low, however, there was a drastic increase to 18,480 after the mill started," Mr Kumar said.

Tests were carried out after All Saints Secondary School students and hundreds of residents along the river complained of headache.

"What we need to remember is that this management alone cannot be blamed for the problem because it has been there for decades,' Mr Kumar said.

Mill manager Uday Nand said the FSC was going to put in place changes to save the Qawa River.

"We will work together to get the things improved," he said.

Good on you, All Saints

from w
One of the best schools in Labasa is All Saints Secondary College, a high school started by the Anglican church. They have a good program in checking the environmental damage to the Qawa River and now they have another project.

from Fiji Times today:
Saints on litter marchTHERESA RALOGAIVAU
Thursday, July 31, 2008

OVERWHELMED by litter problems a secondary school in the Northern Division made sweeping changes and employed' environmental monitors who have made inroads in solving litter issues. The 12 environmental monitors at All Saints Secondary School have succeeded thus far in keeping the school litter free.

School principal Kaliote Mackenzie said at one stage plastics and other forms of paper rubbish littered the vast school compound, an unpleasant sight to see. "We told the students again and again to use rubbish bins but that did not make any difference. It seemed all good advice fell on deaf ears. We decided it was time to be a bit tougher," Mrs Mckenzie said. "After the environmental monitors were appointed, we have observed major changes. The students are just careful about dropping any rubbish."

When the second school term began 12 students from forms 3 up to form 7 level were appointed and were invested with the authority to charge' those students caught littering within the school compound. Yellow scarves tied around the monitor's shirt collars distinguished them from the rest of the student population. Student monitors were also an initiative of the Live and Learn program which the school is a part of and coordinator Amit Maharaj said a student caught littering was fined $1.

"So the monitors, with their yellow scarves are a walking warning to other students that they could get into trouble if they littered. Students rethink their desire to litter when they see the monitors around," Mr Maharaj said. "The monitors move around during the recess and lunch hour break with their note books in which they write the names of the students who litter. These students must pay their fines. But their surveillance is not limited to the school compounds. They also monitor littering in classrooms," he added.

Another school teacher Mr Ram Lingam said in the beginning, monitors would be often challenged. "Students would refuse to pay their fines or even dare the monitors by dropping rubbish in front of them. Sometimes they'd even be verbally abusive to the monitors but over time this has changed along with their attitudes about keeping the environment clean," Mr Lingam said. "Now there is hardly any reminder during school assemblies about keeping the environment clean. Students know that littering is wrong and in the process have been subtly educated or instilled with good attitudes towards their environment."

As an incentive to motivate students to keep their environment clean, the cleanest classroom would be awarded a prize. Penalties collected is directed towards funding another school environment project which is monitoring pollution levels at the Qawa River on the banks of which the school is located.

All Saints Secondary School

From Peceli

All Saints High School Labasa

This school is still going strong with a long history of developing education for multiracial students in the Northern Division. It started off as a boys school, but then became co-educational.

Because it is next to the Qawa River east of Labasa on the road to Vaturekuka where the government headquarters used to be. Floods happen quite often in Labasa and All Saints School gets flooded. We call this area Vulovi, the low hying part of the Qawa river. It is not far from the Labasa Sugar Mill.

There’s a song called ‘Vulovi na vanua ni vanua ni salusalu.’

When I was in Labasa a week ago I visited All Saints School with Father Emosi Petueli, an Anglican priest. The lady principal showed us around and told us about how far the flood reached. It was the worst flood damage in the history of Vulovi she said.

We were there to give them books and computers and teaching material from the Donation in Kind Geelong. The container we sent included gifts for about twenty schools in the Labasa area.

Vina'a va'alevu All Saints Secondary School

from w
The Fiji Sun ran a story about the water sampling project at All Saints Secondary School in Labasa. This has been an on-going project for some time now to test the pollution in the Qawa River which has been very bad over the years. At least one thing the three floods did in Macuata this summer was to clean out the rivers!

Awareness project to protect river

From tomorrow students of All Saints Secondary school in Labasa will start their community awareness programme on pollution in the Qawa River.The aim of the students RiverCare Club is to make Qawa River a river and not a dumping ground.
This activity is part of their RiverCare project that has progressed after the last few years from just testing the water of Qawa River to community awareness a stronger partnership with the Fiji Sugar Corporation, and education signs on the river bridge. RiverCare, funded by the Vodafone ATH Foundation Fiji, is a project of Live & Learn Environmental Education carried out with Secondary Schools. The mission of the project is to empower people with the understanding that we can all be involved with caring for our rivers; we want to be able to drink from them, fish from them and pass them onto our children as previous generations have passed them on to us."This will be coordinated by science teacher Amit Maharaj and another three teachers. The students will hand out 200 pamphlets to people in Batinikama settlement upstream and the industrial area home to Fiji Sugar Corporation, Valebasoga Tropik Boards Ltd. and Fiji Electricity Authority.At a later date the students will present to the community their findings from the water monitoring and present.

A second flood for Labasa

from w
The term babasiga is used to describe a sunburnt land, the drought-stricken land of Macuata, but certainly this summer it is the wrong word. Now, a second flood has caused havoc in the Labasa area. There needs to be short term and long term plans obviously - dredge the rivers, stop the logging, rebuilt schools and housing on higher ground, but the priority at present is to save the people, make temporary provision for food and needs. All the Fiji papers have been running stories about this second flood. Here is an example - this one about All Saints Secondary School which is on the Qawa River in Vulovi, not far from the Labasa mill.

Perhaps some supersitious people will say that it is the wrath of God when nature is violent, but I see it as just part of the geography and weather patterns of a tropical island. In the tropics it rains. However man has contributed to the chaos will unscrupulous logging and living just for the day.

From the Fiji Times
School loses stationery, furniture in flood
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

TEACHERS and students of a secondary school are in urgent need of assistance after losing $60,000 worth of stationery and furniture to the flood over the weekend in the Northern Division. For the second time within a month, the All Saints Secondary school, which is currently closed, has been hit by flood waters that damaged school desks, offices, technical machineries, stationery and laboratories.

School principal Kaliote McKenzie said being hit for the second time by flood waters within a month was not an easy experience for her and the teachers as they were still trying to recover from last month's flood. "We have just received stationery assistance, replaced new machines and furniture in the school when this second flood hit again over the weekend. And that has resulted in more damage to the school compared to the last flood in February," Mrs McKenzie said. She said at this stage, the teachers don't know where else to get help from especially when they were just assisted and have lost almost all stationery again.

Yesterday, the students and teachers were at the school to clean up the premises.
Classrooms were filled with thick silt, machines and equipment on lower shelves in laboratories were on the floor and covered with silt.

Mrs McKenzie said although the teachers had put books on higher shelves, after seeing the rainy weather on Friday night, the strong currents shook the shelves which dropped the books to the floor. "The current was so strong on Saturday night after it entered the classrooms and that's how the books stacked on high shelves fell to the floor.

"The water also entered through the windows as the level continued to rise in the compound. This time the water level was more then that of last month and there is more cleaning up to do," Mrs McKenzie said.