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Romancing the Environment - Profile Pita Vatucawaqa

8/24/2005

By Lusiana Speight

HE wakes up before daybreak, at four in the morning.

Stretches and sits up in his bed and looks around his village home in Vunisinu, Dreketi, Rewa.

Fifty-four year old Pita Rokosuka Vatucawaqa washes his face and settles down for his morning devotion to commit his day to the Almighty. After his devotion Pita sits down to have his breakfast and while doing so watches his grandchildren slumbering peacefully in a distance.

Then Pita goes over his plans for the day ahead.

The passionate environmentalist is thinking up ways to develop his village and neighbouring villages.

He is the chairman of the Village Environment Committee for the Vunisinu and Nalase Community in Rewa.

As soon as he finishes his breakfast, the energetic and bubbly grandfather heads out to his farm and works in the plantation until noon, before returning home for lunch.

“After lunch I head out again to continue my daily environmental work around the village and surrounding areas and also pick up rubbish in the area every Mondays and Fridays,” says Pita.

The Rewa native has a passion for the environment. He has been this way since childhood, he said.

According to the Environment Ministry, Pita has been the key person behind the success of the many pilot waste management activities implemented in the village.

The ministry has found that many villages have a problem with the proper disposal of waste.

Pita had helped the ministry and the International Waters Projects to set up projects in his community for the betterment of the people.

In doing so they have developed household composting in the village, composting toilets, composting piggery waste which is a collection system for inorganic rubbish, anti-litter; reduction of plastic usage (cloth bags) and a recycling system for glass, metals and PET bottles.

Peace Corps volunteer Mary Ackley, who has stayed in Vunisinu for the past two years, attributes the success of these projects to Pita.

Now with Pita’s efforts, Ms Ackley has confirmed that more than 80 per cent of the households in both the villages of Nalase and Vunisinu are now composting their organic waste.

Pita’s effective participation for environmental projects did not begin until early last year.

“After attending a three-day workshop organised by the Fiji International Waters Project last year, I really started to understand the causes of growing health and environmental problems in the community,” he said.

“It was only when we went out on a field trip to see the dying coral reefs that I realised that the depletion of our fisheries is also caused by leaks from our toilets, waste from piggeries and our grey waters.”

Returning from this workshop a changed man, Pita set out to assist his fellow villagers protect their environment and marine life.

With the help of the Environment Ministry, Pita has now assisted with a few environmental pilot projects in the area.

The latest project was the construction of compost toilets in his village.
Funding was sourced from the Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS) and technical assistance was issued by Ms Ackley and household composting of organic waste has been the highlight of waste management activities promoted at the pilot sites.

He is also assisting with the Piggery Project, which is under way in the area with assistance from the South Pacific Community, University of the South Pacific, University of Western Sydney and the World Health Organisation.

The communities of Vunisinu and Nalase have become very engaged with these development projects and with Pita’s guidance they now want to provide a model for Fiji on how communities can work together to protect their environment and coastal resources.

Pita is ecstatic about their new compost toilets and its success.
“Our village is virtually just at sea level and all the waste from our toilets is leaking straight into the river and causing all the problems,” he said.

“Now, with this compost toilet used by my family and other families in the village, the goodness of it is that apart from lasting for ever, it is not harming the environment.”

Pita also believes that all the organic waste from the village should be composted and used as manure, which is something he is also working on at the moment.

“When I did the composting from the kitchen waste it was only after people actually saw the big, healthy eggplants that they actually realised there was something to it,” he said.

“When dealing with people in the village, it is really a case of seeing is believing. That is the main approach we need to take with them to move mountains.”

The latest work up Pita’s sleeve is the construction of compost piggeries in the village. At his ripe age of 54, I wondered what pushed this Rewa man to toil on these projects for the betterment of his people.

His answer proved his commitment and passion for environmental work.

“To spread the good news about having a healthy environment from Tikina Level (district), Yasana (province) and ultimately the whole of Fiji is something which I know would be beneficial for Fiji’s future generations,” he said.

“Something which would make our grandchildren appreciate the beauty of our country.”

It was not surprising when Pita said that he loved doing only two things in the world and one was playing with his grandchildren and second was working towards a healthy environment.

Apart from his role in the environmental aspects of the community, the staunch Methodist is also the village church steward and something he sees as being of service to the congregation.

In addition to these two roles, Pita is also sitting on the position of being the assistant chairman of Navovula Development Committee (Vunisinu village).

As a die-hard Rewa native, Pita has been in the village for the past 10 years and even spent most of his weekends in the village while being employed in the capital.

“Now I am just trying to give back something to the people of my village and my community here in Rewa,” he said.

“I hope elders from other villages in Fiji realise the importance of our environment and work on conserving it for the generations of Fijians to come.”

ends

Contact Name	Steve Menzies
e-mail	stevem@sprep.org
Phone	(685) 21929
Fax	(685) 20231

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