20 Mar 2008

Resistance to Samoan village relocation

4:24 pm on 20 March 2008

Several Samoan families and residents on leased government land in Sogi village are opposed to a plan to be relocated.

The government has offered each family a quarter acre of land at the cost of 14,000 US dollars to shift to Nu'u a place not far from Tafa'igata Prison.

The initiative was taken because the village is built in mangrove areas, which has blocked the water flow towards the sea and causes flooding on the coastline of Apia.

But a minister for the Congregational Christian Church in Sogi, the Reverend Kerisiano Soti, says the government has failed to provide them with any written documents to support the request for relocation.

Sogi village was formed by some of the Solomon Islanders who were brought into Samoa to work on the agricultural sector during German colonial rule a century ago.