FIJI – A group of Tasmanian and Fijian volunteers is hoping to improve conditions in remote Fijian villages hit by Tropical Cyclone Winston.

The cyclone devastated parts of the South Pacific country earlier this year.

Providing shelter, food and water were the first steps of the recovery, and now the focus has turned to wastewater management.

Fifteen young Fijian men and women are visiting Tasmania to learn how to build and install wastewater systems in the villages.

The trip is being led by former Wallaby forward Ilie Tabua.

The former rugby union player’s remote highland village was hit hard by the cyclone.

“That was the route of the Winston hurricane – it went through, devastated mainly crops, housing and livelihoods,” he said.

Tabua sought assistance from Bob Patterson, an environmental health officer from Hobart, who specialises in wastewater disposal.

Patterson visited the remote villages to see what needed to be done.

“I saw devastation, squalor, dear little kids with bad eyes and runny noses because of the wastewater going everywhere,” he said.

“I went and checked each site to also check with the villagers, particularly the ladies, as to what they wanted.”

Patterson drew up wastewater designs for each house in each village, and has been training the Fijians to build and install them.

“The volunteers are going to do two villages, and I think it would just be a matter of two months – we’re talking 80 installations, 78 houses and two community halls,” he said.

Integral to the success of the project are the young Fijian volunteers, who all paid their own way to Tasmania.

One of them, Esiteri Bulikiobo, represented Fiji in the women’s Rugby 7s World Cup.

“This is probably a first in Fiji, for us to come and implement this,” she said.

“It’s going to be a life-changing thing for us back at home.

“They can have better sewerage systems to help them with their daily lives and also to stop the diseases. This will definitely help save lives.”

Another volunteer, Lazarus Naiseruvati, said the training had been a gift.

“It’s a learning curve because we’ve never seen this and we’ve never experienced this in Fiji,” he said.

“We are using this to impact community, transform community, help the leaders, government leaders, to see how we can reach through the grassroot level and help them because they struggle.” - ABC