The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment hopes to have a steady water supply to vulnerable families by April next year.

Assistant chief executive officer Ruth Ueselani said the Water and Sanitation Sector Coordination Division is very close to finalising details with a supplier of water tanks to families in Palisi.

The division is procuring and installing around T$100,000 worth of water tanks, some of which will be installed in primary schools used as evacuation centres, and some for individual families.

“This project is a continuation of a project from about three or four years ago called the millennium development goals initiative project,” she said.

“There are families that Samoa Water Authority and the Independent Water Scheme suppliers do not reach, so they have no water supply, or very little.”

Ms Ueselani said she hopes the program will make difference for these families, and that it can be run annually, thanks to funding from the European Union.

Eventually, the sector aims to have the Samoa Water Authority and Independent Water Scheme suppliers reach all Samoans, but in the meantime supplying water tanks is necessary work.

“We hope by January 2019 the supply of tanks will have arrived and we can start the implementation and have it completed by March or April 2019,” she said.

Ideally the tanks would have been procured and installed before cyclone season, Ms Ueselani said, but some processes were not completed in that timeframe.

“But we are certain the Samoa Red Cross Society, Samoa Water Authority and the relevant implementing agencies of the sector, from previous projects and the work of the disaster management office, will be prepared with a water supply in case of a disaster.”

The more than ten households in Palisi were selected following an assessment done after Tropical Cyclone Gita, and were identified as most vulnerable.