SUSTAINABLE LIVING – Vaiusu Bay Style

NB: There is an attempt here in Samoa to build a model Sustainable Village around Vaiusu Bay, employing all the best practices, introducing all the latest proven renewable energy technologies, and improving the natural resource management skills. Close on $USD500,000 will be spent initially to achieve this.



Some of the coastal villages within Faleata District, those surrounding Vaiusu Bay, have been selected for some real improvements in their lifestyle. Vaiusu Bay, as you all remember, had once been the local household rubbish dumping site, and even acting as a sand-dredging site for many years.

Can anyone remember taking all their rubbish and throwing it into the mangroves, into the Vaiusu Bay?

In 1996, Government relocated the dumpsite to Tafaigata. Has anyone been to Tafaigata Dumpsite lately? It is truly amazing how so much rubbish can be carefully processed and buried. No more burning of these wastes is allowed at this site. Why? That’s right. It is so poisonous to our health, and even our wildlife. So why do we still see villagers, and sometimes even schools, burning all their rubbish? It is time for all of us to stop unnecessary burning of rubbish, especially plastics (that can cause cancer) and leaves and grasses (that can be better used as good compost for the nearby plants). Getting the picture?

In February 2008, Government also put a stop to the sand dredging in the Bay. We now all realize that all of our coastal villages are relying on their marinelife as a source of food. We cannot afford to keep reducing the production of marinelife and seafoods. Or can we? Remember, as climate change impacts our shores even more, food security becomes a more serious issue. We all need to prepare for all the damage that global warming will cause.

As an aside, does anyone know the connection between air pollution and global warming? Of course we do, so why don’t our pulenuu ban all fires in our villages, except those for cooking? Come on now, go and see your pulenuu today and ask kindly for his help. Suggest a $10 fine for each family court polluting our air, causing cancer, and causing more global warming.

Please write in and tell us what your pulenuu said.

Attempts have also been made to protect the remaining mangroves in Vaiusu Bay, these mangroves being so important for our inshore fisheries, as a source of medicinal plants, even helping to protect our coastline from storm damages.

The question now is: “Can Vaiusu Bay be fully restored to its original status?”

May be one day soon, Vaiusu Bay will become a popular ecotourism destination, maybe equipped with a beautiful mangrove walkway where our children can wonder safely to view some pristine mangrove ecosystems, with fish and crabs breeding beneath the walkway, seabirds resting and feeding in the shallows, and even plant-out a few new mangrove seedlings themselves.

Imagine if every school child in Apia planted one new mangrove tree per year in Vaiusu Bay? Wouldn’t it start to look beautiful within say 10 years time? And if every school child picked-up a paelo/bucket of tins and rubbish from around the shores of Vaiusu Bay, then imagine what Vaiusu Bay would soon look like? Mind you, we all need to stop throwing our household rubbish into all the streams and drains flowing into Vaiusu Bay. Do you see your neighbours discarding of their rubbish this way? Does the rubbish truck collect rubbish in front of your house twice a week? Then, for the sake of all the fish and crabs in Vaiusu Bay, let’s get all our household rubbish onto those trucks and send all those trucks out to …………….? Where? That’s right. Tafaigata Dumpsite.

Now, the residents of Vaiusu Bay have expressed all these concerns at recent consultations with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE), wanting the old dumpsite restored, wanting more mangroves planted out where they once grew, wanting to also prevent some serious floodings from further reducing their living standards. Mind you, these same residents in Vaiusu Bay were also happy to hear that the sand dredging has finally stopped, the dumpsite is about to be finally restored, and that somehow Government is going to try and help stop some of the damage being caused by floodings in these low-lying areas.

UNDP have designed a Programme of Works for Protected Areas (PoWPA) and this funding has been offered to these coastal villages to now try and protect this once beautiful mangrove and coastal ecosystem, restoring it to the best possible level, with the best possible management of these coastal natural resources.

But the question now is: “Do we have the management skills within Samoa, within Vaiusu Bay, to successfully restore these mangroves and coastal ecosystems?

The answer is: “Even if we don’t, we are all going to get trained on how best to protect not only our mangroves and fish and crabs, but also all the wildlife in Samoa. The MNRE is now preparing a new Key Biodiversity Area Booklet with all the best wildlife conservation sites in Samoa being recorded within this booklet. And this booklet will contain all the latest wildlife management advices on how best to manage Samoa’s unique and precious wildlife, both marine and terrestrial.

Two other such MPAs have been operating in Aleipata and Safata Districts for the past 10 years or more. The lessons learnt and the results from these two MPAs will be applied to the new MPA in Vaiusu Bay. But what does this all mean to you and I?

Well, it simply means that we may soon be learning how to live a more sustainable lifestyle with good food, good schooling, good ecosystems and good management of all our wildlife, including human beings.

After all, UNDP want us all to achieve our Millennium Development Goals, our MDGs, by 2015. So in rehabilitating Vaiusu Bay, it means that all of us can help by keeping our air clean, sending ALL our rubbish to Tafaigata, by clearing all the rubbish away from our drains and rivers that feed into Vaiusu Bay, and by learning with us over the next few weeks how we can all Save Samoa’s Siosiomaga.