23 Dec 2015

Water tanks not enough for drought relief, says EU

12:42 pm on 23 December 2015

A manager for a European Union aid project in the Pacific says governments must use aid funds more effectively to battle problems like drought.

The European Union has provided over a million euros to Fiji which will fund a new emergency operations centre and help the supply of water to dry parts in Nadi, Nadroga and Ba provinces, as well as out to the remote Yasawa islands.

Water is a precious resource in the Pacific Islands.

Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades

Taito Nakalevu who is the project manager for the EU Building Safety and Resilience Project says 150 water tanks are being dispatched and will be re-used by the National Disaster Management Office for future droughts.

But Mr Nakalevu says the tanks on their own are not enough.

"You know the legal frameworks that should be in place to be able to deal with this, and also the capacity at the national level to be able to absorb the funding and also implement it in a timely fashion to be able to reach the people that need it most."