Water has a great impact on people and no matter where they are, they will always need it. 

Togia Ropati of Vailuutai knows the feeling of fighting to have proper access to water.

Aged 60, he’s a husband and a father to three children.

Speaking to the Village Voice, Mr. Ropati said that most families at Vailu’utai including his, are in great need of water.

“We have no substantial water supply to depend on and it has been like this for over 20 years. It’s just way too long,” he said to the Village Voice team.

Mr. Ropati said they had paid for water access before but nothing had changed.

“The cause of this is that the government’s water can never reach our side. 

“As you can see from just down the road, there’s a water pump there, so that is the water supply for Vailuu-tai and Fasitoo-tai but it’s not enough to cover every family in the village.

“So we made a plea to the government, a little while back then on this matter, and what we did was, we got bamboo sticks to use as a channel for the water to flow through but it was a waste of time because the water does not run strongly. 

“We spent about a $1000 tala on that and it was a waste of time because it didn’t work.”

Mr. Ropati said there was a programme that paid a visit to their village, donating water tanks to some of the families.

“You know it was one of those programmes that we should be thankful for because even though they weren’t able to donate to every family in the village, they still helped though and gave their all.

“So that’s why you can see that some families have water tanks now.

“Unfortunately our family wasn’t one of those families who was blessed with a water tank. 

“And that is something we really need help with because water is life and I believe that nothing is complete without water.

“We need it for drinking; we need it to make food for our families not forgetting that we also need it for our plantations.

“Having water means so much to us and all people everywhere need it every single day for survival.”