No housing aid, claim villagers

VILLAGERS on Tropical Cyclone Yasa stricken Kia Island in Macuata, Vanua Levu, claim they have not received any housing assistance from the Government.

Most villagers interviewed by The Fiji Times said they have had to rebuild their homes using broken timber and dented sheets of roofing iron.

They said the dented roofing iron sheets were used as walls, while some families used tarpaulins to cover one side of the house.

Village headman Kemueli Lautiki claimed no assistance was provided by the State for housing except for food supplied after the cyclone.

“There has been no assistance in terms of housing except for water tanks given by a local company and other donations from international groups and kind donors,” he said.

“Sea Mercy visited us and gave us a lot of fishing gear to help us because the sea is our major source of income.

“Apart from other kind donations, there has been no help for us to rebuild our house since TC Yasa in 2020.”

Villager Penioni Ratu said life had not been easy since TC Yasa.

“Our only source of income is the sea but we don’t get much income from selling fish,” he said.

“So whatever money we have managed to receive so far has helped us rebuild our houses as we buy nails, hammer and other stuff but we can’t buy the timber or new roofing iron due to the high cost.”

Another villager, Ratu Meli Silibaravi, said they had to make do with damaged cyclone materials.

Questions sent to Minister for Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management Inia Seruiratu remained unanswered when this edition went to press.