Village

It is one of Samoa’s picturesque waterfalls which attracted tourists and locals alike prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Visitors pay an entrance fee which helped maintain the site as well as support the village.

Before the closure of borders and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a village committee cleaned the waterfall and its surroundings every Mondays.

In an interview with the media recently, one of the village chiefs, Mataafa Upuia said this was the village’s main source of income until the borders closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic.

Sasina village signed a deal to lease five hundred acres of customary land for 120 years, and has just received its third annual payment of $US120,000

The MP for the constituency that includes Sasina, La'auli Leuatea Polataivao Schmidt, said the money is contributing to the wellbeing of 500 families.

Despite sovereignty concerns, La'auli said the deal they've struck comes under regular review.

The work, led by the Ministry of Heath, took place early June.

"Fumigation is one of the main priorities of the Ministry of Health and it is also a way we could show support to the Government of Samoa as we prepare for the Games," said Sapati Vasa, Ministry of Health Senior Sanitation Surveillance Officer.

The Games Village will host more than 4,000 athletes and preparation is going well.

"Fumigation deals with the elimination of unwanted pests such as mosquitoes which carry diseases. We are looking at getting rid of their breeding areas," Sapati continued.

The police said more than 30 people were involved in looting and torching the houses at Taravo Village on Sunday in the Titige area west of the capital, Honiara.

The perpatrators are believed to have been retaliating after one of their own people was attacked and wounded the day before.

Armed with knives and stones, they attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning cutting down trees and crops, killing animals, looting and setting fires.

Taravo's 50 residents escaped into the bush to seek shelter.

The matai council of Nofoali'i, a village west of Apia on the way to Faleolo International Airport, imposed the ban this week.

According to TV1 Samoa, the villge mayor confirmed the ban on the former Head of State, also a former Prime Minister.

Tuiatua was a MP under his matai title Tupuola from the village of Nofoali'i when he became Prime Minister in the late 1970s.

The village mayor said the council had tried to intervene in a dispute between Tuiatua and another family in the village, but was rejected.