Schools From Rakiraki to Nadroga Navosa Will Stay Closed: Ministry

Schools in the Western Division from Rakiraki to Nadroga Navosa will remain closed until at least Monday April 9, 2018, says the Ministry of Education. “Damage assessments and rehabilitation work will continue to be carried out to clean up schools, restore access to essential services, and ensure that affected Fijian students and teachers are able to safely return to sanitary and wellequipped schools,” the ministry said. The ministry will provide regular updates on the status of the rehabilitation process. National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) director, Anare Leweniqila said the opening of the schools would also depend on the clean-up.

“With the advises coming from the ground, some of the high schools like Xavier College will take two to three days for the soldiers to clean,” he said.

“The level of debris will highly determine our pace of work in terms of cleaning up.” Mr Leweniqila also said the Ministry of Education was conducting consultations with the district officers.

Mr Leweniqila said there are teams on the ground assessing the damages. He mentioned the broad areas that they are looking at which includes:

School clean-up, he said their top priority was to ensure that the classes are back to normal as soon as possible.

Restoring of water, electricity and the roads.

Distribution of food rations to the communities.

Assisting with the safe return of the evacuees

Conducting assessment of the initial damages and whole affected area clean-up to get things back up and running.

Mr Leweniqila said all the funding used for the operation so far were from within the respective organisations and ministries.

“Ministries that are deployed to the field funds itself,” he said. Food rations are provided by the Ministry of Economy, however, all other operations, he said the respective organisations and ministries would consolidate and request the Ministry of Economy on how best it could replenish the funds utilised. The key agencies on the ground are:

Republic of Fiji Military Forces

Fiji Police Force National Fire Authority Fiji Corrections Service Ministry of Health

Fiji Electricity Authority Water Authority of Fiji

Fiji Roads Authority.