 THE
PRESIDENT
REPUBLIC OF FIJI 3 June 1999 The
President Dear Dick, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to visit the Rotary Village at Anandpar, Ba last month, and I write to express appreciation to the Rotary Club of Ba in initiating a housing project for the disadvantaged families in the Ba region. I was particularly impressed with the work done in using soil as the main raw material for making compressed soil bricks for the Rota Cottage construction. The prototype Rota Cottage appeared to be well built being able to Withstand wind-speed of 65 metres a second, which is well above the minimum standard required by insurance companies of 45 metres a second. The destruction to rural homes caused by cyclones is a concern to all in Fiji and I hope that this technology can be duplicated throughout Fiji so that our citizens may have cyclone proof homes, thus saving the country millions of dollars in rebuilding. Another fact of great importance was that unskilled labour can be used to make the bricks and construct the cottages. As both these commodities are an abundant resource in Fiji great savings in foreign exchange could result. I must commend the efforts of the Ba Rotarians and those Rotarians from overseas who have assisted in achieving something that is so relevant for our people in Fiji. I trust that such support and funding may continue to allow your Club to successfully complete the project. I
shall follow the future progress of this Village with interest |