Chief rues absence of road lights

By Aruna Lolani 22 May 2017, 12:00AM

One of the main responsibilities for any village chief is to guide people. 

When you see something that’s a risk for the people’s lives, you do something about it. 

Samuelu Tevanafune from Lealafa’alava, Leauva’a, is one such man.

Aged 57, Mr. Tevanafune is one of the village’s chief and he expressed his concern about having no lights on their road. 

“What I need to ask for help in is for our area to have light poles or road lights because there are too many problems happening these days on our roads,” he says.

“Everything is okay but it’s just the fact that this whole area of Lealafa’alava doesn’t have any light poles and it worries me because it is really dark, and many people and cars come through this way.

“We are at a time where bad things happen really fast without us knowing about it.

“We have curfews for the people of the village and we take it very seriously but what happens when everyone’s sleeping?

Mr. Tevanafune added on “We have a lot of families in this neighborhood and that’s why we go about doing our job every night but we won’t always be there.

“Curfews are really important and we are very serious about it but mind you, the generation of today or the youth, they like to walk around at night time, or some of them go to the shop and considering the fact that we don’t have any lights for the road, we can’t assure that they will always be safe.

“Sometimes late at night, we see people coming in their vehicles, dropping off other people while the villagers have already slept and that’s not okay, that’s not safe.

“It is little things like that that always starts something, causing problems for the community. 

“We can never know and that’s why we need to be aware of little things like these.

“So it’s better to have my plea out there for the government to think about because it is their job as well to protect the people of the country as a whole.

“Our area need light poles for the roads, for the safety of everyone.

“It is my job as a chief to inform this matter because I care about the people and it’s an issue that the government should not consider a small one because I’m telling you, something small can cause big problems. 

“Having no light poles or street lights can cause problems so let us not wait until the problems occur for us to care about this situation.”

By Aruna Lolani 22 May 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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