We at FIJI Water are proud of our Fiji heritage and dedicated to contributing to Fijiís social and economic development. Because of this, we have funded local and national development work in Fiji, including water access projects. The fact that our business exists is the reason why a hundred Fijian villages will have clean water this year.

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We believe that Fiji is home to the best water on the planet, and the people of Fiji should be able to enjoy it as much as the rest of the world does. Reliable access to clean, safe drinking water is common throughout much of Fiji, but there are still remote villages where infrastructure is lacking.

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FIJI Water has taken direct responsibility for providing water access to the villages that surround our source in the Yaqara Valley. We are doing this work through the Natural Waters of Viti Limited Trust, which we established in 2000 and fund with a percentage of company revenue. All funds from the trust go directly to projects in Vatukaloko, our local vanua, which is comprised of the six villages surrounding our plant and is home to more than 75% of our 400 person workforce.

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Over the last eight years, the trust has invested hundreds of thousands of Fijian dollars upgrading water systems in local villages, and this year we have used our own onsite talent and resources to drop three new bores in the villages to provide better quality and more consistent water supply. We have completed projects that serve the towns of Drauniivi and Togovere, and by the end of 2008 we will complete similar projects in Naseyani, Nananu and Rabulu.

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In addition, the FIJI Water Foundation – founded in 2007 with the intent of bringing similar benefits to communities throughout all of Fiji – is a partner in the Rotary Pacific Water for Life Trust, which is building sustainable water projects in Fijian communities that have been determined by an external SoPAC survey to have the highest level need. In addition to its Rotary partnership, the FIJI Water Foundation has provided water tanks, bores, piping, and expertise directly to numerous other schools and communities that have applied for aid, including Navesau Adventist School in Ra, Vunisoco Village in Namosi, and Malomalo Primary in Nadroga.

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Through our partnership with the Rotary Club, we will be responsible for bringing water access to a hundred communities this year alone with the goal of another hundred communities in 2009. Over 50 of the projects we have planned for 2008 are already complete, and we’re looking forward to sharing more about individual projects in upcoming blogs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Community, The Fiji Islands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.