Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fiji counts cost of flooding

Updated at 9:52 pm on 31 January 2012

Fiji's interim government says sugar crops and mills have sustained nearly $6 million in damage from last week's flooding.

The Ministry of Sugar earlier put the cost at just more than $10 million dollars but has revised the cost down.

The bill for cleaning silt and debris from the Rarawai Mill alone is estimated at more than $1 million but the interim government says other mills around the country were unscathed.

It says crop rehabilitation would cost $1.4 million.

Cyclone watch downgraded

Meanwhile, Fiji's Meteorological Service says a depression off the Nadi coast is no longer expected to deepend into a cyclone and is now heading south.

They are still forecasting thunderstoms, heavy rain and winds gusting up to 40 knots in some places and say flooding is possible in low-lying areas of Fiji.

The forecasters say they are still closely monitoring a depression forming north-west of Vanuatu.

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