The Water Resources Division field office was officially opened at Vailima on Friday.

The opening of the $720,000 project, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, coincided with World Water and Forests Day 2019.

Deputy Prime Minister and MNRE Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, said the building will be a base for the field teams of the Water Resources Division.

“The field teams will carry out community extension works and will be a center for water education to continue a yearlong campaign for other schools wanting to experience the Water and Forests Educational journey," she said. 

The building was designed by the OSM Consult, and built by Zheng Construction. It was funded by the European Union flagship Global Climate Change Alliance Programme.

ACEO of Water Resources Division, Malaki Iakopo, said the opening of the building is an important step for Samoa.

“We are a sub-sector of the Water and Sanitation Sector that was set-up due to the government’s efforts in looking after our sustainable water resources management for Samoa," he said.

“It is because, before we only had the Samoa Water Authority which deals with water supply and the government saw that in order for water supply to be successful and effective, there was a need to protect our water resources and sources.

“Our role is to ensure sustainable water resources management, our mandate is looking at protection of our watershed areas."

The Water Resources Division ACEO highlighted the importance of effective information on water resources.

“Our three main objectives are hydrology, watershed management and water sources policies and legal framework.

“But in order for all three to be effective we need all three to be effective we need a lot of public awareness on education - which is why we have a fourth objective on our agenda which is public awareness.

“Our field team will be moving into the building next week – they will have a laboratory that will conduct water testing, an Information Technology team who oversee and supervise our flood systems"