A new rainwater water system in Wailailai

Wailailai is a small rural highland village in Vanua Levu, Fiji’s 2nd largest island. Wailailai is a remote village, the approximately 200 residents live without any electricity. Most of the village are farmers, growing root crops like dalo and tavioca (i.e. cassava) which are sold to the surrounding villages.

Water was an ongoing challenge in Wailailai. Some homes in Wailailai had their own water systems – generally rainwater collection from the roof down to their own individual tanks. However, the village did not have a shared water system, meaning when individual tanks ran out, villagers often needed to collect drinking water from the nearby river below the village. This was a concern as it meant that the water could easily be not safe for drinking, mainly due to contamination upstream from farming – particularly from weedicides, pesticides and other run-off chemicals and from the village itself.

In Fiji, government support for water in rural communities is extremely limited. Villages are largely expected to find and manage their own water systems, with the support of various NGOs. Most villages have rudimentary systems directing water from nearby streams to a central tank, but many are aging and unreliable – only providing water for a few hours in the morning, or none at all during the dry season.

The Ministry of Health contacted Caritas Fiji through the disaster coordinator around a typhoid outbreak in the village during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

The Caritas team arrived at the village and presented a SevuSevu, traditional protocol for entering the village. Afterwards, with the village headman, the team did a technical assessment of the site.

The Caritas team and the community decided to build a central shared rainwater harvesting system for the whole village which could be supplemented by the water authority with additional water when the system was running low. This was done because the upstream land with the river was leased which made it hard to build a water intake. In addition, any water source from the stream would still be at risk from the upstream agriculture. Instead the rainwater would be caught by the roof of one of the largest houses in the village and then piped into the shared water tank. The community could collect water from the tank at any time.

Like with most Caritas Fiji WASH projects – the team designed a gravity only system – it has no electronics or pumps – to ensure it is able to be cared for by the local community with local resources. This ensures long term sustainability – there are many examples of well-intentioned complex water systems in Fiji being built and then not surviving the Fiji wet season.

The team transported 4 tons of material to the site. This included the 500kg poly-tank, cement, blocks, timber, rebar and various other supplies.

The material was sourced from Savusavu hardware, then driven to Wailailai. Transporting the materials was very difficult. The village is only 30 meters away from the road, but it still took more than 10 attempts to get the truck up to the village because of the steep and slippery dirt road. In total the process took almost four hours.

The village and the Caritas team unloaded the materials, and the construction began the same day. Like with most projects, the community lead the design of the system and do most of the work building the system, Caritas Fiji just provides the technical guidance, expertise and structure to deliver the projects. This ensures the community is invested in the new system and ensures it is maintained and delivers long term quality water supply.

First the village leveled the ground to build foundations for the tank. The foundations are important for the tank to last over the long term – it gives the tank some extra leverage and keeps it safe from damage from flooding and landslides and the fittings to be able to be well connected. This was done just with hand tools and the village – no power tools or earth moving equipment was used.

Then the concrete slab was poured and set to cure for seven days. The tank was then lifted into position – again without the power tools, purely with the village.

The Caritas Fiji team generally lives on site with the community for the duration of the project, often several months. However, in this instance, because the village was struggling with a supply of clean drinking water, the team needed to stay offsite – the nearest accommodation was in Savusavu, more than four hours away. This was particularly difficult as the entire project was done during COVID when there was a strict curfew in place. The Caritas team needed to leave the site every day before 6pm to reach town before 11pm. The team did this for two and a half weeks, the full time for the project.

Finally, the village of Wailailai has a large tank for the safe storage of drinking water. We give our thanks to the generous donors – Catholic Relief Services and USAID, the Water Authority of Fiji and the people of Wailailai for supporting another successful project!

Water is fundamental to human dignity and something many people around the world take for granted.

Caritas Fiji then ran a training session for the whole village around maintaining the new water system. This includes technical skills, but also the basics of WASH, sanitation and generally taking care of the system.

The water storage system is still working as of early 2026.