WAF Changes Happen After MP Raised Concern
The Opposition raises issues of national interest; the Government takes note and remedies them. It’s the ideal way that a Parliament should work in a democracy such as ours.
The positive outcome is the changes in the Water Authority of Fiji. It’s also a perfect example of the Government and the Opposition playing their roles to serve the people they represent.
As far back as September 24, 2015, Opposition SODELPA MP Aseri Radrodro raised the problems in WAF in his response to the Presidential speech for the opening of the 2016 Parliament session.
He said then that while 80 per cent of our population had access to piped water with some form of treatment, and around 40 per cent had access to sewerage facilities, the age old pressing problem of intermittent water supply still existed despite the level of investment going into this sector.
He said: “According to Government official reports, this is related to high leakage in the systems and the inability of the existing infrastructure to cope with demand.
“If these problems continue to persist Madam Speaker, maybe Honorable Minister needs to get better people to handle the problems and overhaul the board of WAF just he has done for LTA.”
On July 25, 2017, Mr Radrodro issued a statement from the Opposition Office, demanding that Government stop playing politics with people, buckle down to fix the priority of providing basic infrastructure in terms of water supply to the thousands affected by water disruptions.
He made the remarks after the burst main at the Waila Treatment Plant.
“This is preposterous of this Government that in this day and age of modern technology and after WAF has received close to $1 billion in Budget allocation for the last three years, we still have much disruptions affecting homes, businesses and schools,” he said.
“Someone has definitely been sleeping on the job.
“I have to question the technical knowledge of the current CEO and the WAF Board on addressing these crucial issues. Why was this allowed to get to this stage? “Let me just end by strongly recommending that WAF gets a CEO and Board Chairman with engineering background to sort out that institution otherwise we will increasingly see the same pandemic problems which saw the CEO for FRA run away from his job occurring at WAF.
“This is shameful for the Government given the high amount of money it pours into infrastructure development annually as compared to the days of Public Works Department.”
The Government must have taken the issues seriously because on December 14, 2017, WAF issued a statement which said: “The process has started to recruit a new Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) chief executive officer with a strong engineering background in water and wastewater management to oversee major projects scheduled to begin early next year, including the $US405 million Greater Suva Area Water and Waste Water Scheme.
“The new CEO will replace Mr Opetaia Ravai, whose contract has been discontinued, according to WAF Chairman PL Munasinghe.
“While we thank Mr Ravai for his excellent work over the past five years it is time to position the Authority to meet the engineering and technical challenges ahead. “WAF is entering a new era that is becoming highly technical and we need a person with extensive hands on experience in water and wastewater project development to lead the Authority, said Mr Munasinghe. “It is expected that the new CEO will be named soon, Mr Munasinghe said.” While no one has been named yet the irregularities uncovered by the auditors vindicated Mr Radrodro’s statement. He has been asking the questions since 2015. It’s finally been sorted out
Mr Radrodro had asked the questions that matter to the people, not engaged in frivolous debate that some of his parliamentary colleagues were involved in, to score cheap political points.
When Opposition members make a statement with substance, the Government’s more likely to investigate and act.
If other Opposition MPs are like Mr Radrodro, the Opposition will be a lot stronger. Where there is a strong Opposition, the Government is strong. This does not mean just making noises in Parliament or attacking Government for the sake of being heard and seen.
But rather to contribute in a meaningful way like Mr Radrodro did.
While they may be on opposite sides, the Opposition and Government complement each other when they carry out their roles as they should. WAF has become a beneficiary of this relationship.
The bottom line is that they are both accountable to the public.