- By Adorina Massing, Oct 25, 2024
The ‘Voice of the Erakor Lagoon’ advocates successfully hosted an awareness event yesterday at Feiawa Park to start a petition aimed at restoring their contaminated lagoon.
The event began with a parade featuring students from Erakor School, leaders, chiefs, Port Vila Member of Parliament Ralph Regenvanu, and the Erakor community, who joined the peaceful demonstration from Erakor to Feiawa Park.
Chief Waoute Patrick, who oversees the Erakor Division of Environment and Fisheries and the entire Erakor Lagoon, acknowledged the challenges faced but expressed determination to move forward.
“The purpose of creating an event like this is to demonstrate that our lagoon needs to be restored so our people can feed their families by fishing for food, selling their catch to earn money, swimming, and enjoying the lagoon’s beauty,” he said.
“God has entrusted us to care for this earth; therefore, we must be diligent in preserving our environment for the future,” he continued. “We have been carrying out our work since 2015, and we will continue until we see promising results. We are also trying to teach our young ones how to take responsibility and care for the environment.”
Carlos Noronha, another member of the leading committee, noted that the chiefs have placed a taboo on the lagoon to prevent overfishing. However, the amount of polluted waste from seaside industries has killed much of the fish population.
“So, we have to be the voice of the fish, representing the creatures suffering in the polluted lagoon, and that is how the ‘Voice of the Erakor Lagoon’ was created,” he said.
“It was an ambitious project to organise the logistics for the demonstration; luckily, the Police Commissioner and the community police understood the idea. This is not the first time we have worked with the police in patrolling and cleaning up the waters using their boat.
“Even though none of the authorities or other departments attended the event, we will continue to invite them and seek their support.”
Mr. Noronha described the demonstration as “absolutely brilliant.”
“It was a long march, but it was very powerful. Everyone was very happy, and I’m sure that everyone will appreciate a Pacific demonstration for the environment.”
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