Samoa: Stink threatens conference

With the UN’s Small Islands Developing States conference a few months away, a stench in the middle of Apia is causing concern.

Five months to go until the country’s biggest event is held, parts of the capital, Apia, still smell like a sewer, the Samoa Observer reports.

Employees working at the National Provident Fund Plaza said they are left feeling sick from the smell coming from what they believe to be a septic tank. They say it seems to be under the footpath right in front of their shop.

Fofoa Tufuga said they have been suffering for so long: “It’s all right when the door is closed but once we have customers coming in, that’s when it really hits us, and the smell will stay inside the shop.

“This problem has also affected business, because we have tourists who come in the shop and they also complain to us about it, but all we can tell them is that we have already put a complaint to the people who look after the building.

“It’s bad, and it gives us headaches.”

Other sources said the smell was coming from a grease trap for they plaza’s food businesses. This could not be confirmed.

Shopper Iosia Manuleleua from Vaimoso said: “Whoever is responsible for looking after the building should really look into this, because we have events that are happening in the future– like the SIDS conference – and it would be very embarrassing to have visitors walking around here holding their noses because of the stink.

“We have to fix this to make sure that this issue will not go on until that time,” he said.

The Samoa Observer has been unable to get comment from the plaza’s management.