The street and residential address naming project that began under the former Administration is now in its early stage to assign formal street addresses in various parts of the country.

The Ministry of Works Transport and Infrastructure C.E.O. Magele Hoe Viali, in response to questions that were emailed by the Samoa Observer, said the project has been on the pipeline for many years.

However, in 2019 the previous Administration established a special taskforce to commence the establishment and planning for a street addressing system for all of Samoa.

"This Taskforce is headed by the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and comprises of different Ministries and Agencies," Magele said on Friday.

"In 2020 a street addressing unit was created and it currently sits with the Planning and Urban Management Agency Division of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure.

"This project is still in its early stages where a system of how to number the streets and assign formal addresses for all properties of Samoa will be created.

"At the moment the plan is to start with the Apia Urban Area and then will gradually roll out to all of Samoa."

According to Magele, the project will look at assigning unique house numbers and together with street names produce formal addresses for each property and household.

He said the new system will have benefits for home owners who are resident in particular streets as they will have access to various services.

"The benefit of a Street Addressing system will help emergency and first responder's services such as medical ambulance services, police response services, fire services as well as enhance the potential to improve and expand future postal delivery services for the benefit of households and businesses," he said.

The assigning of street names to be used in the addressing system is the responsibility of the Geographic Naming Board, which Magele said is a committee headed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

"They are responsible for creating the street names and these street names will be used by the Street Addressing Unit to form the proper addresses under this project," he said.

Magele said that as the project is still in its early stages and they have not faced any major challenges since inception.

"The street addressing team still has a long way to go to research and roll out the numbering and street addressing system for all of Samoa and will continue to inform the public when it has a system that will be used," he said.

He added that a key part of the project will be public consultations for information and the team will schedule workshops and consultations for everyone to discuss the project as well as hear concerns from the general public before the system is finalised.