Don't bath in that polluted river

from w
I was really disturbed to read that because of a poor water supply to parts of Labasa that some families actually have to wash in the dirty Qawa River, even clean there teeth in the polluted water. This will certainly lead to illnesses. The talk about the pollution caused by the Labasa Sugar Mill just doesn't seem to be heard and acted upon and the Qawa River year after year is a disgrace.

from the Fiji Sun today:
Residents drink, bathe, wash in Qawa River

writer : SHRATIKA NAIDU

4/12/2011
Residents of Bulileka, Labasa, had to resort to drinking water from the Qawa River since they have been without water supply for two months. Qawa River is said to have been contaminated because of industry waste from parts of Labasa Town.

A FijiSun crew caught up with a group of school children brushing their teeth and bathing in the river while their mothers were washing clothes.

Kinisimere Botai, a Class Eight student of Valebasoga Public School, said she did not go to school because there was no water to brush teeth and have shower at home. “At school I was taught that personal hygiene was very important and so with this teaching I decided not to go to school,” Botai said. She said it was dangerous brushing teeth in Qawa River because it was contaminated.

She said it reminded her of the dangers of the recent outbreak of leptospirosis. The eldest of three siblings said she understood that it was not right being absent from school so she stored few gallons of water to take home and use it today.

Arieta Pita, 45, a resident of Bulileka, said there had been frequent water cuts for two months. “Since the first flash floods hit the North on February, the people of Bulileka have been without proper water supply,” Mrs Pita said. The mother of one said for the past few weeks the water would arrived at 2am and lasted for only four hours.

Water Authority of Fiji, in a statement, confirmed that water supply would be restored by tomorrow.

WAF was aware of the disruptions that have been occurring since the bust along the Navau line to the Benau water main was damaged during the flood. The authority said repairs would last a fortnight.

It also mentioned that two trucks were carting water to affected areas like Bulileka, Boca, Vunivau, Basoga and Urata while WAF’s special teams were currently working at the site.

The Qawa River

Rakesh Kumar beside the Qawa River in Labasa
from w
I'm sure I've written about the Qawa River about ten times and still there are stories of the pollution from the Labasa Sugar Mill. Here's another one in today's Fiji Times. The good news is that young people are complaining and testing the water. Good on you, All Saints Secondary School students. As in my previous post about the planning for a bauxite mine in Bua, there are trade-offs - industry and a clean environment, but where is the balance?

Man from Qawa River
Maneesha Karan
Friday, June 11, 2010
RAKESH Kumar first encountered the Northern Division's biggest environmental tragedy when he began his secondary education at All Saints Secondary School 12 years ago.A dux during his school days, Rakesh promised himself he would help bring justice to the students and people settled in the area by finding a resolution to Qawa River - which continues to be heavily polluted.

"We used to breathe the stench everyday at school for six months since the beginning of the crushing season in June.

"I used to wonder why the respective stakeholders and authorities weren't taking any action against the pollution. It was affecting our livelihood," Mr Kumar said.

Such an experience and unjust treatment of the environment influenced Rakesh's career path. He went through the Fiji School of Medicine, and was awarded a scholarship to study engineering in public health at an Australian university. Now an environmentalist and public health official, Mr Kumar seems to be nearing his goal to finding a resolution - a case on polluting the Qawa River stands before the Labasa Court.

"The environment is closely related with public health and we would like to help conserve the environment for the best interest of the people.

"The hardest part so far was the complaint received from the principal of All Saints Secondary School. Following that we conducted a survey in 2008 with 1000 students of the school and it was appaling to discover that nearly all the students showed signs of dizziness, nausea, and headache.

"Students' lives are negatively affected and as a result this also impacts their education. Students and those living on the river banks were suffering and I decided something had to be done."

People are desperately waiting for a solution, Mr Kumar said. "Every year during the sugar cane crushing season, the river turns ink black and the marine life disappears. Studies have found the sugar mill discharges huge amount of chemicals into the river."

Industries are important for an economy's development, Rakesh said, but it was unfair to trade public health for an economy's success. "Having industries is beneficial to the economy but there are measures and regulations the companies should heed to control waste disposal. We want to bring Qawa River back as a relaxation place for family outings, where people can once again swim and fish," Mr Kumar said. "People want to have a river which is safe and free from pollutants."

Mr Kumar is being nominated in the Pride of Fiji's Environment Medal category.

Meanwhile the Qawa River...

A never-ending story of the Qawa River and pollution....

from today's Fiji Times.What lies beneath ... Noa Rakadi, of Natokamu Village, beside the Qawa River which is devoid of life. Picture: THERESA RALOGAIVAU
Surely it's about time they stopped talking and really did something about it. It's appalling that the Qawa River in Labasa isn't cleaned up yet!
Death comes every 6 months
Theresa Ralogaivau
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

THE crabs and fish are gone and no amount of prodding in the mangrove swamps or throwing lines into the Qawa River will reel them in. This disappearance occurs every six months during the sugar cane crushing season. It has forced Natokamu and Cawaira villagers into a desperate search for food in what was once a river thriving with life. The impoverished Solomon Island fishing community at Cawaira has had to go further out to sea to make a decent catch.

Advisory councillor Timoci Biroko said the toxic discharge from the Fiji Sugar Corporation mill destroyed life in the river. Mr Biroki said little creeks and other rivers that branched off from the Qawa River had also been polluted. "Year in and year out we suffer this problem for between six to eight months a year," he said. "As soon as cane crushing season begins, that's it, all our river food is gone.
Two weeks after the mill opens, dead fish, crabs, malea, everything living in this river floats to the surface, dead. After that the smell hits us. At night it's like we are sleeping in the river. That's how bad the smell is."

Nemai Walolo, 72, of Natokamu Village, said a river favourite , the bakera (crabs) had vanished. Village headman Noa Rakadi said most of the eight families at Natokamu live off the river. "Their income, their food source is all gone so it's mostly just cassava and tea if they can't buy food from the shops," he said.

The Rural Local Authority carried out tests on the river and discovered all the food villagers held dear was dead at the bottom.

Secretary Rakesh Kumar said the tests revealed that the problem was being caused by an effluent discharge from the mill nearby which had decimated all river life. "There is sludge now at the bottom of the river. the tests were pretty alarming," he said. "There is a high level of decaying matter in the river which is giving rise to that bad smell and we feel this is injurious to public health."

Mr Kumar said they are working with FSC on the matter.
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Comment: Stop saying they are working with FSC, do something about it! Also, I wanted to look up the FSC website and send a letter of complaint but ha ha, the FSC website doesn't work. Says it's under construction - or perhaps deconstruction!

Same old story about the Qawa River

from w
Come on you guys in Labasa. Giving them three years? You've got to be joking. This is an old, old, old story. It should have been managed better decades ago. Do not give them three years, give them three days! It's gross that the Qawa river in Labasa are polluted by the sugar mill. From Fiji Sun today:

State to act against Qawa River pollution
10/3/2009
Moves are underway in Labasa to end the pollution of Qawa River. This is revealed by the Director of Environment, Epeli Nasome yesterday. “It is visually evident that unwanted waste is discharged from the Labasa Mill,” said Mr Nasome. Mr Nasome said a meeting was held with executives of Labasa Mill this week to find ways of ending the pollution. “The environment is our surrounding and it should always be clean and free from pollution.”

He confirmed that Labasa Mill had been given three years to improve its waste drainage system to minimise pollution to the river.

Attempts to get comments from the Labasa Mill were futile yesterday.

The on-going topic of the Qawa River trouble

a clean Qawa River upstream

a picture from google earth of part of Labasa town, via tribewanted.
from w
For years the people of babasiga just put up with the dirty river caused by the polluting Sugar mill and others who treated the river as a dump. Now it is an on-going protest and even the Methodist Church in Labasa has picked up the subject. Vinaka va'alevu guys.
from today's Fiji radio:
Protest march against Qawa river stenchWednesday, December 03, 2008
Taken from / By: fbcl
The Methodist Church will lead a march this Saturday in silent protest against the foul smell coming out of the Qawa River. Rev. Savirio Vuata says people living along the QAWA River will not sit back any longer while nothing is being done to rectify the problem.

Rev Vuata says all they’ve been told is that the Fiji Sugar Corporation and the Vatura sawmill is dumping their waste into the river and the march is for authorities to look into the matter and stop the continuation of pollution.

He says people living alongside the river can no longer draw sustain from it because of the foul smell it holds which only happens when the sugar mill is in operation Rev. Vuata says it is only at the end of the crushing season when the river is somewhat normal.

The Methodist Church march will be accompanied by other religious bodies and villagers who live alongside the Qawa River and will start from the Nasea Methodist church to Macuata house.

A government official will await them at Macuata House to receive their petition.

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.