Nadi businesses and residents have stepped up pressure on the government, accusing it of failing to turn funding promises for the long-delayed Nadi Flood Alleviation Project into on-the-ground action. At last week’s National Budget consultation in Nadi, local businessman Anil Gounder told officials his property, built in 2009, has been repeatedly damaged by floods and demanded to know why work on the project has not begun despite public announcements of a $400 million funding package.
“What is happening?” Gounder asked during the consultation, saying property owners and entrepreneurs are shouldering repeated losses they cannot afford. “The Government is sitting on that project. We are entrepreneurs, we know what money talks and what money does. Please can we have something complete on the ground, we are suffering with time extended because of this Nadi Flood Alleviation Project,” he told the meeting, according to participants.
Gounder’s intervention comes as frustration grows among the Nadi business community over what they describe as a disconnect between high-level announcements and visible progress. Although the $400 million figure has been reported in media coverage, business leaders say there has been no evidence of physical works such as river works, levees or drainage upgrades that would directly reduce flood risk to Nadi Town and surrounding settlements.
In response, Nadi Chamber of Commerce & Industry president Lawrence Kumar urged immediate, structured stakeholder engagement and proposed a dedicated taskforce to drive project delivery. “I’m urging the Australian High Commission and Fiji Government to create a taskforce around it,” Kumar told this newspaper. He said the taskforce should include business representatives and other local stakeholders so that affected parties are kept informed and involved in decision-making. “At (the) Nadi Chamber of Commerce, we are a key stakeholder in it because our businesses always get affected by flooding. So we need to be part of that taskforce to ensure that we are well informed on it,” Kumar said.
The calls for accountability and coordination come against the backdrop of a government-launched climate initiative unveiled in Nadi earlier this year. In March the Fiji Climate Adaptation Program was officially launched at the Fiji Culture Village in Nadi. The program, designed to tackle the town’s vulnerability to devastating floods, will target the Nadi River catchment with pilot measures including nature-based solutions and upstream revegetation. The initiative is supported by a $35 million investment from the Australian Government scheduled between 2026 and 2029, but that sum forms part of a broader adaptation effort rather than the previously publicised $400 million package referenced by local critics.
What is new in this episode is the public airing of commercial frustration at the Budget consultation and a formal call from the Nadi Chamber president for a jointly led taskforce with the Australian High Commission and the Fiji Government. Business leaders say such a mechanism is needed to translate funding announcements into clear workplans, timelines and visible mitigation works that will reduce flood damage to properties built in recent decades.
As yet there has been no published timetable for the start of major construction works in the Nadi Flood Alleviation Project, nor an official response in this report from government agencies overseeing the program. For residents and business owners who have endured repeated flood events, the renewed public pressure signals a shift from fundraising announcements to demands for accountable delivery and stakeholder involvement.
Leave a comment