Ice plant saves travelling costs for Rabi islanders

[Stacey King]

Fiji Times Online  Salaseini Vosamana     Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A NEW ice plant is expected to be constructed on Rabi island at the end of the year.

The ice plant will result in fishermen on the island saving travelling costs to Savusavu to buy ice.

The Department of Fisheries revealed plans to construct the plant during the Prime Minister's visit to the island last week.

Senior North fisheries officer Gerald Billings said the plant would be able store two tonnes of ice for 24 hours.

"We will construct the plant at the end of the year and we hope the villagers will utilise it well," he said.

"For the past two years, we only had one licensed fisherman of the 170 operating on the island.

"We ask them to apply for their licence before the plant is constructed so we don't have any misunderstanding.".

Rabi Council of Leaders executive director Marlie Rota said the plant would facilitate fishermen on the island because they don't have to travel far for ice supply.

"This is really good news for the people since fishing is one of the most important sources of income we have on the island," Ms Rota said.

"At times people spend more than $300 to travel to Savusavu to purchase ice ù now we'll have our own supply."

[Paul]

this is a good project for the rural area where ice will be more accessible by users (fishermen and domestic purposes). However, in sustaining the operation of the ice plant who will pay for the diesel fuel for generator powering the ice plant? In other rural islands in the Pacific there is a high failure rates on Ice Plants installed. It will be good to learn the challenges encountered in other rural areas ice plants project to minimize the shortfall that may arise during operation.