Road of hardship and struggles

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L. Likou 26 October 2016, 12:00AM

For many residing in the village of Nu’u, struggles and hardship come in the form of a dirt road.

When it rains, it’s bad. In the middle of the day, the dust from is unbearable.

Latu Isa’ako, his family, along with many other villagers have to struggle with this on a daily basis.

The 54-year-old explains that despite also having water problems in their village, their biggest problem is the road.

 “One of the problems when we first moved here was the water,” he told the Village Voice.

“Another problem is that it’s hard to travel to and from our home because of the road. 

“As you came and saw, the biggest problem we have is this road.”

Latu was happy to be able to show the people of Samoa and the government the state their road.

“When we try and come back home by taxi, the drivers refuse to bring us back here to our houses,” he said. “They leave us in front there because of the road’s conditions. That’s why I am thankful for your programme (Village Voice) so that the government can see.”

“We have sent a request to the government a long time from our side of the village requesting they  come and fix our road.”

Even their constituency election candidate showed no interest in helping his people after attaining their votes.

“The Member of Parliament we voted for said he will help,” Latu said.

“It would be good if they followed through with it but I am thankful that we finally have the opportunity to make people and the government see to our request.”

“We really need work done on our road here.”

Latu main concern is the children who have to make their way to and from school every day.

“When school children go to school in the morning they sometimes leave when there is before dawn. It’s not easy for them to walk to the main road to catch the bus and to walk back after school.”

“The buses won’t come down this road; we have to make our way to where the buses stop and turn around.”

“Another issue is when it’s dark, with this road you can see that when it rains it gets flooded. That’s the issue we have back here.”

Latu and other villagers have a simple request; they just want a proper road like other villages in Samoa.

“The only thing we want is for something to be done,” he said.

“We don’t want to wait that long; we really need our road to be fixed right now; we ask this with respect.”

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L. Likou 26 October 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>