Dear Editor, Further to the letter to the editor (Where’s the promised potable water? Cook Islands News 20/10/22), regarding all that incredible waste of taxpayers’ money on the ongoing Te Mato Vai/To Tatou Vai fiasco – both local taxpayers’ contribution as well as from our generous New Zealand cousins – and nothing to show for it!

There is still no reliable water supply but plenty of massive empty storage tanks.

Perhaps Mr (Garth) Henderson, the Financial Secretary, could bring the public up to date with exactly what the cost of the project is currently. As the public will well remember, he was adamant that the cost of the project was “always” going to be $90 million (when it somehow skipped from $30 million to $60 million and then to $90 million) – it was a long time ago that he gave us that assurance.

Since then, work has been continuous, with more and more To Tatou Vai vehicles on the roads, and more and more staff, as well as private consultants – band aids everywhere, from what I hear. So what has the cost blown out to now Mr Finsec? And just as importantly, when can the public genuinely have access to a proper water system – let alone potable?

Wat-er disaster

(Name and address supplied)

Road speeds

We need consistency in our road speeds (Muri 30km/h speed zone limit ‘should be shortened’, October 21, 2022). Nikao backroad is another one. Why 30km there all the time. Should be 50km and reduced to 30km at the times schools are starting and finishing, like the rest of the island. There’s no logic in the 2km 30km part in Muri approaching from Avana.

Brent Fisher

(Facebook)

Nobody follows the 50km zone anyway, that’s your answer to why nobody is following the 30km sign too, it doesn’t matter how long or short the stretch of road is. Just park a police car in the middle of the 30km sign or the 50km sign, you will see how every traffic follows the rules. Even if the police car is empty with no officer in it. Cool aye, no petrol wasted, no man power needed.

Pa Matapo

(Facebook)

Hundreds of tourists and locals use this road by foot every day and during market nights walking from Tikioki and Avana. Heaps of traffic parked day and night on both sides of the road in this area and hard to drive with a vehicle coming the other way We don’t want any accidents to happen to anyone using the road by foot in this area.

Keep it to 30km/h – we not in Auckland.

John Toa

(Facebook)