They're Beating
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
The Cook Islands'
Water Problem
With the exception of Rarotonga, the southern group of the Cook islands has always lacked an adequate domestic and agricultural water supply. The shortage has be come of increasing importance in recent years now that the pineapple industry on Mangaia is being ex panded, coffee is being grown for export on Atiu, and a large-scale banana replanting scheme has been started on Aitutaki.
A LL these projects demand much more water than is available at present. (The atolls of the northern group are not so dependent on water as their only exports are copra and pearl shell).
Last March, Mr. D. J. Gilberd, who is an expert on the practical side of obtaining good water supplies, arrived at Rarotonga and later visited Aitutaki and Mangaia {RIM, May, p. 75). He wanted to determine the type of machinery necessary for drilling wells.
Mr. Gilberd estimated that sufficient water could be tapped on Aitutaki for agricultural purposes, and that there was enough on Mangaia to make the establishment of a small fruit juicing factory there a reality. The Mangaians want their own juicing factory so as to avoid future losses of pineapples which ripen before they can be shipped to the juicing factory at Rarotonga.
Orders for a drilling rig and other equipment recommended by Mr.
Gilberd have now been placed, at an estimated cost of SNZ 17,000. He will return to the Cooks in 1968 and 1969 and will establish water supplies on Mangaia, Aitutaki and Mitiaro.
Dr. Chan, a water expert from the South Pacific Commission, spent two months on Mauke recently, and left Rarotonga for Noumea at the end of August. He constructed a water reticulation system on Mauke, which will supply all the villages from a single well. The well relies on seepage, and the pure water is pumped to the surface by a windmill.
Dr. Chan will return to Mauke in November to complete the work and will then go on to Atiu to complete the well there.
Tt is understood that when an adequate water supply is assured on Atiu, a small coffee processing factory will be built there.