Marshall Islands applies for new water and sanitation systems

Transcript

The Marshall Islands government is hoping Japan will help fund a major water and sewer upgrade on Majuro atoll.

A request has been submitted to Japan's International Cooperation Agency, but officials say the expected 30 million US dollar cost is too much for a one year project, and are instead considering phasing it out over three years.

Our correspondent in the Marshall Islands, Giff Johnson, says the systems on Majuro are in a dire state of disrepair, and the government has made it a top priority to upgrade them.

GIFF JOHNSON: Both the fresh water and the sewage systems in Majuro the capital were installed many, many years ago and particularly the sewage system is quite antiquated and a lot of work is needed on it. This has been brought up by the Majuro water and sewer company, the need for improvements. The work, it isn't where you can just patch a few holes and everything's good. It's so old a lot of new work needs to be done. So, the Marshall Islands put this on the priority list for a Japan infrastructure project and the Japanese traditionally support a large infrastructure project here almost every year. So this is now under consideration by the Japanese to possibly invest, initially in fresh water improvement project for Majuro Atoll.

JAMIE TAHANA: What kind of things would be developed?

GJ: My understanding is the two main issues are to improve both fresh water distribution, which is piping, pump, and those systems, and then also increase the storage capacity for our reservoir system. Because, the Marshall Islands were nearly 100% dependent on rain for fresh water. We have about 30-36 million gallons of storage capacity right now. The idea would be to bump that up so can just have more storage capacity going into dry periods so the city would have water longer. That's the main focus on the fresh water side, on the sewer side we need to redo piping and particularly the outfall area is a real problem because pipes that were put in to extend the outfall way out over the reef over the years is broken and now the sewage is dumped out very close to the island. This has been the way it has been for a long, long time with no action. So, possibly this will get some attention.

JT: It's been elevated to a top priority over other projects for consideration. How long can these systems hold up for, how urgently needed are they?

GJ: The systems are functional they're just not functioning at a really high level. So I think as far as I can tell from what the engineers say about the water and sewerage systems, they're still going along alright. I mean the thing with the sewage side is it creates a hazardous situation for fishermen, for swimmers and so on, people living on the side of the island where the outfall dumps sewage very close to the island. It's been an ongoing issue for a long time and nobody's dealt with it and finally it's become a priority, maybe we'll finally get some attention to it.