At the signing ceremony for the extended New Zealand Aid grant funding, Peter Drysdale Project Founder described the model town’s prescription as a gift from Fiji for the people of the world faced by climate change threats.
There was zero damage from T.C. Winston in 2016 and the model town is also drought and fire resistant. This is a residential subdivision that produces a huge surplus of food. All waste water and sewerage is recycled, and solid waste is sorted, composted, recycled. Koroipita garbage weighs one-tenth the world average.
The model is extremely important for the management of rural / urban drift and for the future resettlement of climate change refugees. At Koroipita there are more than 200 residents of Micronesian (via Rabi Id.) and Polynesian (via Kioa) origin and they have assimilated well. Their families have advanced by way of educational attainment and income generation opportunities.
The model town pioneered in Fiji, is now attracting international attention and many journalists and some delegates from the Asian Development Bank conference will tour Koroipita in early May.
Apart from proven resilience the outstanding achievement has been the fact that the entire second generation of 650 young people have moved outward and upward to tertiary education, good jobs, and good marriages. This is a university of life.