On 09 January 2008, strong winds moved over the Fiji Islands bringing with it heavy rain. As a result, there was severe widespread flooding to villages and settlements along river banks and low lying areas in Vitilevu and Vanualevu. The Western Division which includes approx 140,000 people was the worst affected and was declared a state of natural disaster for 30 days as of 11 January 2009.
The ADRA response to the recent flooding in Fiji has been to organize and distribute emergency food packs to more than 1780 families in the hardest effected regions of Nadroga/Navosa and Ba.
These families will be the recipients of a two-week supply of food which includes rice, tinned tuna, cartons of milk, biscuits, sugar and split peas.
While these actions are a short term initial relief project they will be very welcomed by an estimated 8800 Western Division residents and the beneficiaries will be selected on solely on need irrespective of race, religion or physical location.
ADRA Fiji report that the major problem has been the damage to the water supply with sediment and silt contaminating the drinking water and forcing the closure of more than 80% of the areas businesses and a drop of over 90% of the local produce available for the markets.
A state of natural disaster was declared on January 11th and the Fiji government has estimated the costs of damages to roads, agriculture, water and sewerage to be in the vicinity of 55 million dollars.