This is the truth for most people. 

They can live without electricity and most things but without water, it’s impossible to survive.

Water is life as many people say so how can one take care of a family if there is no water?

That is the view of a 34 year-old father, Ne’emia Brown. from Nofoali’i and Tufulele.

When the Village Voice caught up with Neemia, he was just on his way back from the plantation.

Despite the struggles, Neemia said their biggest problem is the lack of water.

“We haven’t been staying here long; it’s been about three weeks since we moved away from Lalovaea,” he said.

“We moved here because I need to work and put my children first and life has been good but we don’t have water here and that’s a problem.”

Neemia added that it’s not just his family who’s facing this problem. 

A lot of the villagers are going through the same thing. They also don’t have electricity.

 “You know, just because we don’t have electricity doesn’t mean we haven’t paid our electricity bill, no, it’s because the power lines don’t reach where we are.” 

 “Our house is too far from the road.”

 “So our work everyday is to get water from our neighbours or the village’s tane vai (water tank) and we also have to pay because everything is in the metering system now.”

Neemia said water and electricity are major problems for him and his family. 

 “We use a kerosene lamps and we’re okay with it because that’s what our people used back in the days. Right now, we are just trying to survive on what we already have.”

The father went on to say that he thinks about the future of his children and he hopes they will live a better life than him.

 “We don’t have much but we’re still trying to live on what we have.” 

 “We need electricity but we need water the most especially for my children.”

If you want to help out Neemia and his family, you can contact him on 7715015.