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its been raining here in Suva - heavily.

but there's no flooding over here in the "old Suva" districts - i.e the areas that were developed during the colonial days - subdivisions designed by the British.

the Domain is okay, central Suva is okay, all the areas around Flagstaff are okay, all the way through to Samabula and up into the Tamavua / Samabula North hills - around the Raiwaqa, Muanikau, Domain etc etc etc - there is no flooding to speak of.

out past the 3 miles bridge is where all the flooding starts - these are the subdivisions that were designed and developed AFTER the Brits left and mainly in the last two decades - the Housing Authority Subdivisions out past Nadera and on towards Laqere, Tuirara and all those other areas are getting flooded here in the Suva area.

last night, on TV, there was a story about a village in Dravo Tailevu which is situated right next to the river - whilst the rest of the villages around them was flooded, this village remained dry - the Ministry of primary Industries had dug a canal last year to protect that village from flooding - and it worked magnificently during these floods - the village remained dry whilst the whole of that area of Tailevu province went under water.

this thing has been contributed to by the negligence of local authorities and councils in the last twenty years - ad hoc developments and criminal approvals for illegal developments and illegal overdevelopments - and the net result is being witnessed here.

some developments have been done on slipping planes hich would be considered CRIMINAL in Australia and New Zealand - no engineer would approve building on that type of slope - or even next to it - but here in Fiji the local council engineers and town planners have had a good time taking dollars under the table to turn a blind eye - and all the result of their shoddy work over the last twenty years is now being seen - poor subdivision planning, shoddy Enviromental Impact assessments, three quarter half rate work on approvals for buildings, criminal negligence in granting approvals to buildings being constructed in places that are flood prone without adequate engineering precautions being imposed.

this is a big lesson for Fiji - noone can stop the rain - but what we had in our hands is the control of the local authorities and town councils who should have been doing their jobs - this is the net result of corruption and inefficiencies in those authorities over the last two decades.