Struggles of farming and living without water

By Vatapuia Maiava 16 December 2016, 12:00AM

People often forget that without water, it will be difficult for families to plant crops to make a living.

Plants, just like humans, need water too so to put it simply, no water means no crops and no crops means no money and food for the family.

Kolose Afuvai, from the village of Faleasi’u Uta, describes how tough it is to live and farm without water. According to him, this has been an issue for as long as he can remember.

“For many of the villagers living here in this area of the village, the problem is with the water,” Kolose told the Village Voice.

“My family is not the only one who suffers with this, there are many families around who struggle everyday without water.

“I grew up in this village and right from when I was young till this day, the water problem has been a nuisance to everyone here.”

Even those with water tanks are only lucky until the water they’ve stored runs out.

“The families who own a water tank are lucky but the rest suffers,” Kolose said.

“But even with a water tank, if there is more sun than rain then they suffer too so it’s very tough for everyone. So we have to wait around for the rain.

“During the dry weeks, we have to walk around and look for families we can fill our buckets with. After we fill our buckets, we offer them a bit of money for their help.

“It’s a tough life but what other choice do we have?”

And even with countless requests to the government, nothing has been done till this day.

“There have been many requests sent to the government for help but up until now, we are still waiting for help,” Kolose said.

“Almost everyone living inland here can be seen walking up and down the road looking for water. It’s not a short distance but it must be done.

“Life is very tough for us living here without any running water. Even though we don’t make much, we managed to do our best to save up for a water tank because we really need it.”Kolose continued on to explain how tough life is to farm without water.

“Another issue is that we really want to develop our farms,” he said.

“But how can we plant more crops when we don’t have water to help it grow. We are happy that the recent days brought rain but it’s a struggle to farm without water. “Water isn’t just for people, plants need it too so without water then there won’t be any plantation for people to live off of.”

By Vatapuia Maiava 16 December 2016, 12:00AM
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