“They can easily go and carry themselves up the hill and so I find that there is no problem at all with the track they currently use to access to the main village.”
A family at Magiagi has dashed the hopes of residents living in a subvillage called Ueligitone.
Just when the government is finally starting on plans to build a road into the remote sub-village, the project has been brought to a standstill.
“I have stopped the road because there shouldn’t be one,” said family elder, Soafa Felaga’i.
“They shouldn’t be pushing for something they have no understanding about,” Soafa said referring to fellow villagers.
He claims those requesting to have a road built are “young children”.
Young children whom, he said, have no understanding at all of the real situation regarding the land in the area.
“When that road is in place, it will belong to the government and will forever be there,” he said.
But “it takes half a million to remove the houses of my family up there to make way for the road.”
Soafa said his fellow villagers who are asking for the road “can’t pay us that kind of money.
“The Government will have to do that.”
But Soafa is doubtful about the government’s ability to pay them compensation. And there’s more. He claims that the village’s request for the road did not follow the proper protocol.
“They went to the Minister to put a road there so as to ease their travel.” But he had little sympathy for complaints about village access via a steep track.
“They can easily go and carry themselves up the hill and so I find that there is no problem at all with the track they currently use to access to the main village.”
The controversy over the building of a road for the sub-village has been a longterm issue, he said. But he refrained from commenting any further in regards to the compensation claim and past issues that have stopped the road going ahead.
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He confirmed he was approached sometime prior to the latest request by villagers from Ueligitone but “I told them to wait until I consulted with the family”.
“I am not the only owner of those properties, it is family land.”
Businesswoman Lupe Vui, who lives at Ueligitone, said that travelling up the steep track is a very difficult task.
She operates a small store and when she purchases goods for her business, these have to be carried down the hill to where her shop is located.
Ms. Vui is also worried about the situation faced by others who have to travel daily back up the steep hill to get to the main road to find public transport.
Her other concerns are for the young children who may fall ill unexpectedly and for elderly people.
“They have to be carried up the track,” she said.
“The request was made so long ago followed by others, so now all we are doing is waiting.”
Another resident, Fualilia Atonio, said their plans have been put on hold as a result of the family owning the property.
“They don’t want a road here because they claim it’s their land and so we have left it with the village mayor.”
The village mayor could not be found yesterday for a comment regarding this matter.
But Ms. Atonio said the family of Soafa should make clear what compensation they want for the property.
She claims that government provided machines to excavate the property to build the road but the family of Soafa stopped it from going any further.
“This has been going on for more than 10 years.”
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