Farmers in American Samoa have been told to avoid using water to clean out their piggeries in a move to avoid contamination.
Almost 100 farmers were schooled last week on environmentally-friendly 'dry-litter' piggeries, that use woodchips instead of water to deal with waste, which then provides composting options for crops.
The chief piggery compliance officer, Antonina Te'o, says wash-down systems can cause land and water pollution and allow waste material to infiltrate the drinking water supply.
"To help them manage their farm, to keep a healthy, clean pig-pen, to make sure they are not using water, because of the contamination that we're having in our water system, and hopefully in the near future that our families are able to drink out of the tap water."
Antonina Te'o says farmers should use natural woods such as fau, talie or mosooi, rather than wood bought from stores that may have chemicals in it.
