46 communities moving in wake of Cyclone Winston

FIJI – As Fiji continues to rebuild after Cyclone Winston devastated large parts of the country in February, entire villages are being relocated because of their vulnerability to natural disasters.

Many of the villages slated for relocation are in low-lying coastal areas that are vulnerable to rising sea levels and storm surges.

In total, 46 communities have been marked for relocation – and one of the first to undergo the process is the now abandoned village of Tukuraki on the northern side of Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu.

Today, the only resident of Tukuraki is a lonely horse.

Tukuraki is situated in the hills 30 minutes drive inland from the town of Ba. The reason for its relocation is a fatal landslide which happened in 2012.

Village chief, Simione Deru, showed the ABC’s Pacific Affairs reporter, Liam Fox, what was left of the village – not much. The jungle has reclaimed most of it and the church is the only building still largely intact.

The residents there have suffered more than their fair share of disasters in recent years.

Deru showed the ABC crew the remains of a house, roofless, its concrete walls buckled and broken.

In 2012, tonnes of mud and rock swept down the steep ridge above the village burying the house and a family of four as they slept inside. It took two days to dig the bodies out.

“When the landslide happened it had been raining heavily all day. Around 4.00am, a thunder struck creating a landslide that buried this house,” he said.

After the tragedy, authorities ordered the villagers to leave the site for fear there would be more landslides.

Deru said many villagers left the area altogether.

“Since the accident some of us have moved to work in cane farms near the town. Others have found employment in the town just so they can survive,” he said.

Those that remained salvaged what they could and built makeshift homes a few kilometres up the road, but bad luck followed them.

Less than a year after the landslide, the area was smashed by category-four Cyclone Evan. Then last February, the villagers felt the wrath of category-five Cyclone Winston.

During both storms the residents fled their flimsy makeshift homes and headed to the only emergency shelter available – a shallow cave in the bush.

But now their luck is changing. On a nearby piece of land provided by a neighbouring clan, with funding from the European Union, a new village of 10 houses is being built.

At its heart is a community hall that will double as an evacuation centre during future emergencies. All the structures are being built to withstand a category-five cyclone.

Project manager George Dregaso said the aim was to build a resilient community.

“We want to be prepared in the future because the intensity of natural disasters will continue to increase,” he said.

Everyday local women take turns to cook food for the men who are building their new homes.

One of them is Litiana Natumoro, who said life had been hard since the landslide.

“Not okay, our lives are not okay until now. So only one thing we would like to say, we are very lucky. We should like to build a new village and come and stay in the village,” she said.

The massive rebuilding effort in the wake of Cyclone Winston has caused a shortage of building materials and tradesman, but construction of the new village is still expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The head of the Tukuraki clan, Simione Nalio, is hopeful that many of those who left the area after the landslide will return when the new village is finished.

“At times we think about our old village where we were brought up, the place we used to play when we were kids. We miss it.”

“Maybe the next generation they’re going to grow up on this village, then they’ll say this is our village.” - ABC