A student at Notre Dame University, Quinton Hayre, contacted Friends of Fiji to request funding for a project in 2023. Quinton has spent time on two occasions in the remote Ba Province village of Nanuku and has conducted research into the problem of a clean water source for the community.
Nanuku is a remote village in the Yakete Valley with a population of about 162 persons. Water is supplied to the village by a pipeline extending from a creek. During the rainy season, the uncovered water catchment becomes greatly contaminated with runoff mud and other organic contaminants, and the system is unable to provide safe drinking water. If you’ve visited or served in a remote village in Fiji, you are probably familiar with this problem.
This project constructed a gravity fed filtration system, based on a design developed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), consisting of four tanks and filtration media. This system does not require electricity or chemicals, and is maintainable by the villagers. Friends of Fiji contributed $4158.30 to this project.