Most of the flooding that affected Magiagi residents allegedly came from damaged water pipes owned by the Electric Power Corporation (EPC).

Speaking during consultations on the Alaoa flood control multi-purpose dam on Monday, Magiagi resident Ti’a Lelea Fuiva’a said most of the flood during Cyclone Evan came from the broken water pipes, which affected residents in the lower ground area.

“The river flooding hadn’t even reached an hour to overrun but because we’re victims of the flooding, we believe and we know that the flooding was mostly from the enormous water pipes that got spoiled from the Cyclone,” he said.

The EPC, after the flooding, began work to relocate the water pipes underground but did not complete the project due to funding being exhausted. 

The EPC Chief Executive Officer, Tologata Tile Tuimalealiifano, told the Magiagi residents that the project was funded by donor partners but it couldn’t be completed as funding was then exhausted. 

“The money is from the government and we’re just here to do the job and from our knowledge, the budget we use for these projects are from our overseas donors and friends and we could not finish the project because the given budget was not enough to finish the whole project,” he said.