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the cabinet has to agree to declare that so that the national emergency mobilisation programmes can come into play - what it means is that they can effectively deal with the situation - the Police, Army and the other arms of the State are now mobilised as part of DISMAC in order to coordinate the response - and the chain of command goes down from the DISMAC head office.

they already have started setting up "shelters" - and mobilised the supply of food and medicines to those locations.

there are also rescue units of the Police and army which are moving through the flooded areas evacuating stranded people to those evacuation points.

the army has mobilised with the police - they are out there - they have been in the field since two nights ago (Friday).

yesterday morning 10ish, i went down with the fiance to FBCL to make a donation - sitting in the car on Gordon Street i saw lots of people coming and going - i even saw a truck bringing in stuff.

if it dries quickly they should be able to start distributing all the donations - FBCL, Red Cross etc etc etc etc

looking at the maps the thing is, almost all these areas that have been flooded are close to timber felling concessions - in Macuata, Ra, Tailevu, Lautoka, Nadi, Sigatoka - that whole corridor from Nadi to Rakiraki - up in the highlands they are doing deforestation on a massive scale.

and i would guess that its unregulated - you don't see the forestry wardens out in the jungles patrolling - and i doubt that the timber being felled are all subjected to scrutiny before being felled - the procedure is that the Forestry warden has to go out and MARK the trees to be felled - and ONLY THOSE TREES are allowed to be felled - there are girth requirements and growth standards that have to be met - and the Forestry warden has to mark trees within the concession area - clearly demarcated - and then he stamps the tree to show that its an approved fell.

whats happening now is the licences are given and these guys just go out and cut down trees left right and centre - some even harvest outside the demarcated forest areas - and there is no check on what they are doing - the NLTB should also be checking that the timber is correctly stamped - they should be running surveillance operations - stopping trucks on the highway to check that the timber being carted out is stamped with the forstry stamp. thats the NLTB's job in areas like Macuata etc etc where most if not all the timber is being extracted from native lands - in the past the NLTB used to have surveillance teams in the North - they used to be out on the roads at night time stopping timber trucks coming out of the native land concession areas to check that the timber is correctly stamped - timber thats not stamped is immediately confisticated and the licence holders licence is brought under immediate scrutiny - all of these areas where the timber concessionas exist are basically native land areas. the NLTB has a surveillance role too.

Forestry are collecting reforestation fees everytime they grant a fell and that money is meant to be used in replanting the area so that the forest is regenerated - but somehow i don't think thats happening. the money is being collected for reforestation but whether the reforestations is being done is another question.

add whats happening out there in the higlands with whats happening in the urban centres with haphazard developments, no town planning and local council strict oversight, free for all industrial, residential, commercial etc etc etc etc development without proper work being done to adequately manage the planning and implementation etc etc etc etc

this thing is a laspe ACROSS all government sectors - Forestry, the Town concils and NLTB surveillance for native land felled timber.