Home 
Publications Catalog Online Publications ADB Review Article
Fiji Islands
|
SUVA, FIJI ISLANDS
ELLINGTON’S WHARF Fisherman Iliesa Nakarawa says an improved road would cut down on the maintenance of his pickup truck
It was in a quagmire stretch of road by the fishing village of Sawakasa, with clumps of mud sticking to our shoes, that it became clear we had taken the tougher route.
There are two ways to drive from Suva, the administrative capital of the Fiji Islands, to Nadi, the tourist mecca and site of the country’s only international airport. One is the southern Queen’s Road for a smooth 3-hour ride on an all-weather road. The other is the King’s Road around the eastern and northern side of the main island of Viti Levu for a bone-jarring journey that takes far longer.
Some who take the latter road during the rainy season don’t get far. One journalist who drove along a graveled stretch of King’s Road sank waist-deep into a pothole. “Not only was the car damaged, but so was my computer in the back,” he recalls.
The difference in quality between the two routes is narrowing as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) upgrades several of the Fiji Islands’ roads, including stretches and offshoots of the King’s Road, under the ongoing Third Road Upgrading (Sector) Project, supported by an ADB loan of $40 million.
“The project is upgrading various high-traffic gravel roads on three islands and will improve the access of remote rural areas to markets and health and education facilities as well as promote the growing tourism sector,” says Rishi Ram Adhar, ADB Senior Project Implementation Officer, South Pacific Regional Mission.
For now, however, an expedition from Suva to Nadi on the “high road” in a four-wheel drive jeep is still an unfolding drama as we meet long-suffering residents—still waiting for the new road to reach them—as well as beneficiaries of a tar-sealed surface.
RA HIGH SCHOOL Many students, even those from remote areas, now have a much easier time going to school
Act One opens, appropriately, with rain as we bump along the east coast past Korovou, 50 kilometers (km) north of Suva, until we stop at Sawakasa. This collection of thatched huts around a grassy square is on Lodoni Road, a vital link between King’s Road and Natovi Landing, from where ferries travel back and forth to the neighboring islands of Vanua Levu and Ovalau.
Beside Sawakasa runs a dirt track that is nearly impassable in the monsoon season, and throws off billowing dust in the dry season.
“It’s like a sandstorm when it’s dry and the dust can be felt way beyond the road,” says village elder Eremasi Siganisucu, seated cross-legged on a mat made of pandanus leaves.
“We have to close all the window louvers and doors to keep the dust out,” says another villager, Stella Loco. “And in the wet season, the road turns to thick mud and transport—mainly vans operated by private families—becomes infrequent, irregular, and expensive.”
The road’s poor condition affects business, too.
NADI Occupancy is up at the small resorts on Wailoaloa Beach since one road's completion
Says Robert Patterson, who runs a bus service between Suva and Natovi, as well as ferries from Natovi, “We carry over 50,000 passengers a year on this route and sometimes the buses get bogged down in the mud and have to be hauled out.” He estimates passenger demand will rise by 12% to 15% once the stretch to Natovi is tar-sealed.
Upgrading the road is not just a matter of civil works, says Paula Baleilevuka, Project Management Engineer for the Fiji Islands’ Ministry of Works and Energy. “We have to negotiate with the landowners whose properties border the road, and this takes time.” Nonetheless, she is confident that the roadworks should be completed by 2005.
At the scenic but isolated Uru’s Waterfall, 14 km up the King’s Road from Korovou, owner Urupeni Senibulu says that the resort, a stopping point for tour buses, will be more popular once the road is fixed.
Climbing up the highland stretch of King’s Road, we enter dairy country, where the potholes are so big that even cows pick their way around them.
Fisherfolk, too, complain about the road’s parlous condition. Iliesa Nakarawa, who fishes for rock and salmon cod off Ellington’s Wharf and sends big catches to Suva, says, “An improved road would cut down on the maintenance of my pickup truck.”
URU’S WATERFALL Urpeni Senibula and children; he hopes the sealed road will bring more tourists
Act Two starts after crossing the high point in the mountains at Dama. The sealed road greets us as we descend into the northern side of the island. With its drier climate, the sugar belt towns of Rakiraki, Ba, and Lautoka on the north coast serve prime cane-growing areas.
The smoother road, parts of it upgraded under an earlier ADB-supported project, brings obvious benefits to cane cutters in the field and drivers who truck cane to the mills, as well as the women at Vaileka market, who bring in their fruit and vegetables from the surrounding countryside.
NEAR URU'S WATERFALL The potholes are so big even cows go around them
At Ra High School, a cluster of bungalows perched on a hill, the bespectacled principal, Peni Waqa Seri, says the improved road has made it easier for many pupils to reach school. This includes those living in remote places who have to cross rivers—more than once if the creek zigzags—before reaching the road to catch the school bus.
“The improved travel conditions not only enable students from far-off places to reach school more easily but also help attract teachers to this area,” he says, adding that he moved here only recently from a school in the interior.
“Before the road was improved, the number of students boarding at the school would rise sharply before exams so they could spend less time traveling and more time studying.”
One tall, 17-year-old student, Freddy Nacagi, says it used to take him an hour to get to school from his village and, if it rained hard, he would stay home. The repaired road has cut down his journey substantially.
SAWAKASA Stella Loco cleaning the window louver
SAWAKASA Village elder Eremasi Siganisucu preparing yaqona (ground root of a pepper plant) to offer visitors
Act Three opens with our arrival at our destination, Nadi. Supporting moves to boost tourism, a new 3-km road from one of the town’s main streets to the coastal resort of Wailoaloa was completed with ADB assistance in November 2002.
The transformation of a swampy track into a well-engineered street with lights, bus bays, and parking lanes has drawn plaudits from media as well as Wailoaloa’s 1,500 residents.
One regional business magazine opined that one of the town’s “worst roads” is now the “pride of Nadi” and has already sparked a business boom. At one of the small hotels around Wailoaloa Beach, manager Jiten Kumar reports that occupancy has soared from 70% to 100% since the road’s completion, and the staff has doubled from 15 to 30.
Long-time resident Sala Derenalagi, a lecturer at a teacher’s training college, says the road has changed the life of her family. “When it rained, it used to mean we either could not go to work, or we were late. It also made life difficult and expensive with the wear and tear on cars.”
Meanwhile, residents around Korovou in the northwest still chafe at the inconveniences of an unsealed road, but they can take comfort from the fact that it will be different in a couple of years.
Find out more about ADB's activities in the Pacific
Learn about Pacific Region Environmental Strategy - PRES
Read the news release - Palau Becomes 63rd Member of the Asian Development Bank
© 2008 Asian Development Bank Privacy | Terms of Use |
 Top of page |