Solar lights for Tavua town

Submitted by TemoL on Tue, 22/03/2011 - 8:20am

The cane-cutting town of Tavua will be installed with six new solar street lights as part of the Department of Environment and International Union for Conservation of Nature agreement.

The memorandum of agreement sealed today will see Tavua Town piloting the ICUN project worth $25,000 with technical advise from the department of energy.

Permanent Secretary for Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment, Taina Tagicakibau said a funding of $15,000 will be allocated for the commencement of the project and the remaining $10,000 upon completion.

“Tavua is a good location with lots of sunshine and town councils are in need of such assistance. It is a real challenge for town councils to reduce electricity consumption. Government needs to ensure capacity building with our donors and IUCN recognises the impact of climate change in developing countries,” Ms Tagicakibau said.

IUCN’s Oceania Regional Office Director, Taholo Kami said the project will demonstrate one way to move forward from fossil fuel to meeting needs of people in preserving our environment.

“This is a small step from us, in terms of our partnership it is our common interest for biodiversity and improving livelihoods of the people. Another step in the pipeline is green cities and towns,” Mr Kami said.

Ms Tagicakibau said attention will also be given to Levuka for solar street lights keeping in mind of its heritage and the development sit would bring to the town.

Mr Kami said they don’t usually see conservation when developments takes place as such was the case for PNG and Solomons in terms of mining and deforestation.

The project timeframe for the solar street lights is three months with department of environment monitoring the project.