Green Tech Solution to be announced by July
In an effort to adopt a naturebased and green tech solution, the Ministry of Waterways and Environment is conducting extensive research and is expected to make an announcement this July. The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Waterways and Environment, Joshua Wycliffe, confirmed this while officiating at the planting of 40 mangrove seedlings along the Namoli Village coastline in Lautoka on Thursday.
This is set to be another innovation rolled out within the ministry’s coastal and bank protection obligation.
“The ministry is researching a green tech-based solution and expects to make an announcement in July this year. Solutions include nature-based and green-tech based solutions,” Mr Wycliffe said. He said the Department of Environment, through Fiji’s Ridge to Reef programme, was able to provide an environmentally sustainable line of defence solution to the village of Namoli.
“It’s one thing to defend our communities, it’s also another to build resilience through our oceans by maintaining clean and pure oceans where we are not just protecting ourselves, but protecting our oceans around us,” he said.
He also said there needed to be a collaborative approach to devise solutions that would address all areas of the issue.
“So for a hybrid solution like that we are also working on a hybrid model of staff and teams coming together so it’s a hybrid relationship between two departments, which is our Department of Environment and Department of Waterways,” he said.
Mr Wycliffe said there was nothing better than a mangrove solution when dealing with naturebased solutions along coastal lines. Lautoka Assistant Roko, Kitione Dulakibatiki, said the initiative would assist in the preservation of the Namoli Village’s coastal ecosystem.