Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Praveen Kumar had to intervene in an impasse between a settlement in Lautoka and the Water Authority of Fiji today.
Founders of Koroipita settlement at the outskirts of Lautoka City were charged commercial rate of water usage which they said was unsustainable for the settlement.
Kumar had to visit the settlement today to come to a solution.
Following six months of argument with the Water Authority of Fiji, Founder of Koroipita settlement Peter Drysdale finally found a solution.
The settlement which was established to house the less fortunate ones in the Lautoka area had a master water meter and were charged a commercial rate.
“But now we are going back to the individual meters. The charges for the meters will mostly be at 15 cents domestic rate,” said Peter Drysdale (Founder- Koroipita Settlement)
More than 250 families with more than 1,000 people were affected by the impasse.
“Basically we will be lodging an application for the waiver of the meter fee, our people will be installing the pipe work and the connections , the Water Authority will be putting in the meters , we will put in meter housing ourselves so its a good cost sharing arrangement,” said Drysdale.
Government said this is another valuable lesson learnt while working with private sector in providing decent housing to people.
“The entire cost for the connection, that we have decided to waive so that it will assist them . Lets not forget we got to understand who are these people staying here and government acknowledges the management of Koroipita for the work that they are doing,” said Praveen Kumar (Minister for Infrastructure)
Kumar will be meeting the Water Authority of Fiji officials later to ensure such incidences are not repeated in future.