Water woes for the village of Laulii are over. New connections to spring sources, a filtration system and tanks for its primary school with an all-of-village effort have made this possible.

The school and half the homes were being supplied with dirty water after heavy rain and as a result, in May last year, the Ministry of Education ordered to shut down Laulii Primary School. This prompted action from the village.

The struggle of having to deal with unclean water that was being supplied to over half of the population of Laulii village as well as its primary school has been solved.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, one of the Laulii high chiefs, Leniu Vainiu Te'o confirmed that the new water system in the village was a great boost for the residents, especially the school.

"There have been zero problems since the incident last year and the new system also has an alternative which is our newly installed tanks which can cater to the school and all the families. We're very sure of our safe water supply and consumption since then," he said.

"There are also separate tanks for the school and we have a water pump that can supply the water from the tanks if the water suddenly gets cut off or if we need to turn it off during extreme rainy days."

Leniu also explained that the school committee who are also members of the village committee spent over $100,000 installing new pipelines, built new water catchments connected to the springs in the mountains, and supplied filtered water to its residents and the school.

The school principal, Tepatasi Tosolina explained that the committee had supplied 20 water bottles (gallons) a week to the school throughout the whole of the second term and after the school was advised to close.

A total of 400 students and 34 staff are educated and employed at Laulii Primary School.

Having to cope with the constant experience of unclean water, especially during heavy rain, the students were used to bringing their own water bottles to school for years as per advice from the staff and parents.

Now, they don't have to with the new water system.

Meanwhile, when the school was advised to close at the time, a concerned parent, who expressed concern at the frequent shutdown but asked to remain anonymous due to fears of being banished, contacted this newspaper to alert the newspaper to the plight of the school and its students. 

She said she was worried that her children's learning had been greatly impacted because of the closure of the school.

The school had sought the assistance of the village's leadership – to have access to a good supply of clean water for the school to avoid further closures – but to no avail. 

The Acting C.E.O. of the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture, Tu'umatavai Vau Peseta confirmed in response to questions from this newspaper at the time that the decision to shut the school was based on "no water". 

In December 2022, the village of Lauli'i Independent Water Scheme, a community-managed water scheme, launched its new water intake to capture and supply water to the majority of its residents. 

The community-led project was made possible through a partnership between Laulii I.W.S., LJ Company and China Harbour Engineering Company. 

The works were conducted by LJ Company which consisted of the construction of a new water intake and also the laying of a new 1km transmission polyethylene pipeline. The project was funded by China Harbour Engineering Company at the cost of about SAT$500,000. 

It was also revealed at the launch that the village had plans to utilise its district development funds for other water-related initiatives. According to the S.B.S. 2021 census, the population of Laulii was 2,217 with 51 per cent male and 49 per cent female.

Earlier in January of last year, the Member of Parliament for Vaimauga No.1. Sulamanaia Tauiliili called for the continuous filtration of the water used by residents in Lauli'i and other nearby villages.