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CI Times Weekly | Current Issue 439|23 March 2012

WATSAN begins phase two of the $2.4 million upgrade

The Water, Waste and Sanitation (WATSAN) unit of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Planning (MOIP) has begun work on the second phase of the Muri/Avana Pilot Programme. The Pilot Programme being conducted in the Muri/Avana area is a part of the wider three-year Waste Management Initiative (WMI) Programme, funded by the governments of Australia and New Zealand. While the work in the Muri/Avana area is intended to improve lagoon water quality in the area, the data collected from this programme will be used as part of the planning process for future sanitation upgrades throughout the Cook Islands.
While the initial phase of the Muri/Avana Pilot Programme involved inspections of the sanitation systems of 240 private householders in the area, the second phase involves beginning the work on those households’ systems that were found to be in need of an upgrade. Ken McDonald, Project Director for the WMI programme, said now that the necessary upgrades have been identified, WATSAN is currently at the stage of tendering the work out to local contractors.
Twenty of the properties inspected will have a septic tank bio filter installed for their sanitation systems to meet the Public Health (Sewage) Regulations. According to MOIP, 11 of these installations have been completed and the remainder should be completed by the end of this month. The majority of the properties however will require substantial upgrades, involving either total or partial replacement of their existing sanitation systems. WATSAN hopes to see the Pilot Programme completed by June 2013.
The total bill for the upgrades will be around the $2.4 million dollar mark, however the government has committed to footing 90% of the bill, with householders expected to contribute the remainder. That contribution is expected to be $1000 per household. Those in the area have been informed of this amount and next Thursday 1 March MOIP will hold a meeting in the village to explain the details of the home-owners payment scheme and answer any questions. McDonald remarked that as part of the scheme, home-owners will also be required to commit to ongoing maintenance of their treatment systems and the meeting will also outline those requirements.
McDonald says that the response from the residents of the Muri/Avana area has been positive. “We’re expecting that we’ll have a number of people who will happily pay $1000 upfront... we’ll have some that will take up the instalment options and we’ll have a number of people who genuinely will say ‘we can’t afford it’. So what we’re going to have to look at is some provision whereby those people who genuinely can’t afford it and can demonstrate [that] – we’ve got some back-up provision.”
The next phase of the Muri/Avana Pilot Programme will be the inspection and upgrade of all commercial treatment systems in the area. McDonald described this phase of the project as “slightly more complicated” due to the very specific regulatory requirements for commercial properties that are outlined under the Public Health Act. McDonald says they are currently in the process of clearly defining the criteria of what a ‘commercial property’ is under the scheme, as well as beginning inspections of those properties. He added that it is most likely commercial operators will be required to meet the full cost of their sanitation system upgrade, as a reflection of best practice required of the businesses. Donye Numa, Acting Secretary of Infrastructure and Planning, commented that the ministry is working closely with Cook Island Tourism to review the accreditation scheme to include more robust compliance measures in the area of sanitation requirements. McDonald added, “Under the WMI Scheme we’re working towards a ‘Warrant of Fitness’ for commercial operators. We’ve got the formal provisions under the regulations, which state that these guys have to have annual meetings, checks... What we’re going to do is probably link between that and the Tourist Accreditation Scheme with some sort of less formal Warrant of Fitness Scheme.”
The next major phase of the overall WMI Programme will involve an Engineering Options Assessment to identify the most appropriate treatment solutions for island-wide sanitation treatment in both Rarotonga and Aitutaki. That report is expected to be completed in April of this year.
The meeting for Muri and Avana Residents will take place at 6pm on Thursday, 1 March at the Muri Meeting House, Ngatangiia.

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