22 Dec 2014

Remote Vanuatu gets water supply courtesy of NZ

5:33 pm on 22 December 2014

New Zealand is providing 1.8 million US dollars of aid for community water projects on the island of Malekula in Vanuatu.

The high commissioner, Georgina Roberts, was on the island earlier this month with the environment minister, Ralph Regenvanu, for ground-breaking ceremonies for projects at Lamap and Wallarano.

Ms Roberts says the schemes are being built by UNICEF and financed by New Zealand.

"We also support, as the New Zealand government, smaller projects. During my visit to Malekula I was very happy to visit some of the communities who have approached us here at the High Commission directly for assistance in projects to establish water tanks or building more small community water supply systems."

Georgina Roberts said New Zealand earlier financed water supply projects on the islands of Ambae and Malo.