DREDGING TOO COSTLY

“WE can’t dredge any river, we don’t have any money.”

Waterways Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy said this while acknowledging the indigenous owners of the Waidamu River in Tailevu and an excavation firm that has agreed to dredge the river mouth free of charge.

He said once the first phase of dredging was completed under the innovative partnership agreement with Dredging Solutions and landowners, Government would “look for money” to do the remaining works with an extension boom excavator.

“I want to begin by thanking Dredging Solutions on behalf of the ministry,” he said.

“This is a partnership we have developed with Dredging Solutions, that we will not pay anything to them.

“They will do 2.7km of dredging from the river mouth, they will open the river mouth, so people could go out for fishing.

“They are finding it difficult, they will do it and keep the material.

“Thank you to the landowners for agreeing to that particular solution because if you don’t adopt that particular partnership approach, we can’t dredge any river, we don’t have any money.”

Dr Reddy said he had received calls for the commissioning of the dredging works to be postponed because of inclement weather.

“I said no, that is why we need to do this. We are here to protect your community, protect your brothers and we want to say Waidamu River will not be a threat very soon.

“The Waidamu River will be a source of livelihood for villagers like it always has been.

“We want to ensure that the Waidamu River will continue to support not only this village but the entire Tailevu South community.”

He said dredging rivers was a “really expensive exercise”.

“Just one kilometre of dredging, depending on the volume of extraction, it can go up to $2 million.

“We are talking here about 18km, the Waidamu River is about 18km long and we need to clear up the entire 18km.”