Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Samoa Water Authority says UN to fund safe water study

Posted at 23:01 on 04 November, 2009 UTC

Engineers will be looking into how to best provide families affected by last month’s tsunami in Samoa with fresh and safe water.

Many families moved further inland after the destructive waves, and they rely on roadside deliveries of water as there’s no infrastructure there.

The Samoa Water Authority general manager, Tainau Titimaea, says the United Nations Children Fund will send specialists to the country that will carry out a study to identify safe water sources.

“We’re going to study whether we can use the bore hole from the aquafer beneath the ground or if we are going to get the water from resources south of the village of Lepa. Hopefully, we’ll get the report back as soon as possible when those guys provided by UNICEF arrive next week.”

Tainau Titimaea says it’s unclear where the funding for the new water-system will come from.